


The Crystal Looking-Glass

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU from the S5 finally onwards, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain Swan is NOT endgame, Hot damn this is gonna have a lot of people in it..., I will never approve of Hook or Zelena, I'll be tasteful but be warned, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7381249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the Underworld and New York behind them, and Mr. Hyde and his followers ahead of them, the Heroes of Storybrooke forgot about Rumpelstiltskin and Belle...until he reappears alone with a blank dagger and no memories. While the rest of his family is busy with Hyde, Henry tries to help his grandfather reunite with his lost wife and child, only progress is made difficult for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is another stranger in town that knows what happened to Belle and why they need to hurry...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I. The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my version of S6, done before S6. All the kids are doing it. Takes place, obviously, after S5 onwards, and I'd like to blame wierdogal on Tumblr, ml101 on AO3, for pushing me to do this, and AnnieVH for coming up with the prompt. *throws at them* Here you go.

Granny's Diner was emptier than it had been in a long time. Then again, through two additional Curses to End All Curses, (oh, the irony,) Storybrooke's population had half-doubled what it was for twenty-eight years. Sending away most of the people from Camelot and anyone who wanted to return in the face of what hell Gold would unleash with all of Storybrooke's magic was almost like turning back the clock to those early days when the curse was broken some...what was it? Three years now?

Leroy (formerly Grumpy, _formerly_ _Dreamy_ , but more of the first as days went by,) sometimes found it odd how it was almost harder keeping track of time now that it was moving then when they were all cursed. Storybrooke had this odd loop-cycle sort of effect, certain day-to-day interactions were the same again and again. Certain weekly ones, monthly, and everything repeated again as the year turned. Most townsfolk still felt a might sorry to Henry for spending almost half his young life trying to tell them something was wrong and treating him like he was crazy. At least that chapter had resolved itself.

Shame there were so many additional ones behind it...

Sitting in Granny's Diner, which had less than two weeks ago crash landed back into Storybrooke after a round-trip to Camelot itself, Leroy watched the latest chapter in The Truly Fucked Up History of Storybrooke come to a close. Snow and Charming were first through the door, and Snow almost knocked over Granny to get to the door in the back that led to the bed-and-breakfast where little Neal was. It was early morning, yet, and Leroy didn't feel too inclined to hop off his stool away from his coffee like some of the patrons to welcome back the town's heroes.

Especially with that crazy redheaded witch trailing in the rear behind Emma and her back-from-the-dead pirate boyfriend.

Leroy had often been accused of being a cynic, and in an argument with Archie once, also of wanting to believe the worst in people. It was a long history with the cricket that kept him from saying something he couldn't take back easily. Or worse, laughing hysterically. Because, quite frankly, once upon a time Dreamy had been an optimist, a, well, _dreamer_ who saw the world as a big exciting place. Then shit happened. There were still moments when Dreamy prevailed, but it was so much _safer_ to be Grumpy.

Belle, who he had yet to see walk in through that door, was probably one of...okay, probably the _only_ person in town he could make a reliable exception for. Hell, he stood by her when she wanted to leave the Dark One, _and_ when she wanted to stand by him. Whichever the flavor of the month was, Leroy had the beauty's back because she was the bravest person in town and more than deserved support.

He was definitely going to have to ask what was the current status between her and Gold...as soon as she showed up. Where was she?

If she'd come back with Gold, there was the possibility they went to the pawnshop. Or the pink Victorian. Gold didn't do crowds and honestly, Leroy was starting to understand the appeal. It had become a nasty habit of his old friend Snow to completely abandon everything and jump to Emma's aid, no matter what fell along with it. One of his brothers once said that Storybrooke was a lot quieter when the heroes were away. Hell, lately Archie Hopper had been standing in as de facto Mayor so much Regina had better hope Storybrooke doesn't want another election when her four-year term was up.

Speaking of the former Evil Queen, where the hell was _she_? And Henry?

The crowd had moved away from the doors by then, Snow returning with her blue-wrapped son and Granny carrying the pink-swaddled bundle of Storybrooke's youngest resident. Leroy, being hatched from an egg and named by a pick-axe, felt he couldn't say too much about parenting...but naming Baby Hood after her dead papa seemed...wrong. And handing her over no-questions asked to the Wicked Witch? Very wrong.

The dwarf was almost happy to see the look of hesitation, followed fast by annoyance, on Granny Lucas's weathered face when Zelena scooped up the baby girl and cooed, "Hello little darling, did you miss Mummy?"

So he wasn't the only one unimpressed by the sudden acceptance of Zelena by the town's leaders...

Leroy finally slid off his stool, deciding to pick his battles today and shuffling over to Charming. One of Granny's waitresses, (an opening had been filled since Ruby ran off to gods-knew-where without saying goodbye to anyone but Snow White,) had poured the prince a tall beer and he was drinking that gratefully enough that he had to wipe a foamy mustache off his lip when Leroy came over.

"Hey Leroy, how's everything been?"

"Quiet. So, what happened with Gold?"

The dwarf was not the Dark One's biggest fan. It had spread rather like wildfire at Robin Hood's funeral that Gold had taken back his powers. The yarn spun about him stealing them back and ruining Hook's sacrifice didn't quite sit right with Leroy, though, because he'd been marked by one of those creepy-ass dead Dark Ones Hook had summoned and he sure as hell wasn't forgetting that in one week's time. The power thing fit right with Gold's worse aspects, and the fact that he stole all the magic in Storybrooke just made it look even worse. Leroy almost wished Belle would just give up on him, she'd seemed so hopeful and pleased before she vanished to the Underworld in the convent.

Fighting to protect Baby Hood from her "Mummy", no less.

Leroy didn't have time to dwell on that though. Because Charming wouldn't look him in the eye for a moment and when he did he was heavily trying to hide some emotion. "He didn't come back to Storybrooke with us, so he can't reenter the town lines. But, well...neither did Belle."

"What do you mean neither did Belle? Didn't she come back from the Underworld with you?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

The door slammed open and Regina burst in, almost knocked over by Henry a half-second later. Both of them looked like they'd run all the way down Main Street and both their eyes were wide with subtly-controlled panic. Regina, ever the royal, regained her composure enough where she could close the door and speak in a level, if dreading, tone of voice:

"Hyde is in Storybrooke."

* * *

Henry was certain he'd misheard his foster mother when she said the weasel-like man that rode back to Storybrooke with them was _Doctor Henry Jekyll_. Only then there was a formula injection he heard about later that went down on the rooftop and now Regina was separated from her darker half. She was cleansed of the Evil Queen, and didn't seem any worse for it.

It probably should have occurred to him, much sooner, to wonder why Dr. Jekyll hadn't turned into Mr. Hyde.

Apparently the formula that split you into good and evil halves of yourselves in the most literally way.

With a mental string of swear words he'd picked up here and there from the Merry Men, his dad, and one very sharp one from Granny, Henry and Regina raced to the diner to deliver the news: _Hyde is in Storybrooke._

And he was not alone, if he was to be believed.

That, and Jekyll's accidental impersonation of a squeaky toy, had been just enough information to put Storybrooke back on high alert. Leroy, who for once wasn't the one running around shouting "Terrible news!" was the first to demand answers and Gramps was quick with the basics. Henry didn't really notice, until they started splitting up, but his noble grandfather had skipped Gold and Belle's story. But they had to hurry to lock down their resources, so he paid it little mind as he broke off with his mom's and Hook to secure the pawnshop while his grandparents and Zelena dragged Dr. Jekyll to the hospital to see Whale.

Perhaps two mad scientists could come up with a weakness for Mr. Hyde?

Gold's Pawnshop was, aside from Regina's vault, the biggest collection of magic in Storybrooke. Henry realized that while working there during the Snow Queen debacle some...god, was that really only three months ago? Maybe four? Ugh. Either way, since magic came back to town you couldn't walk close to the back curtain without your skin starting to tingle like it was rubbed with alcohol. Stepping in the backroom felt like standing by a window during a thunderstorm: A current of unease and the tingle of unfathomable power just out of reach, waiting to strike.

It was probably for the best that Rumpelstiltskin had kept his magic ingredients locked tight in trunks and cupboards while Henry was "working there". With some guilt, Henry realized that the Dark One probably knew the entire time that Henry was using him to look for the Author. And as they walked in and Emma started erecting wards against intruders that weren't invited in by her blood (or Regina's,) while his other mother and Hook stormed to the back for the magic textbooks, Henry felt a little more guilty when his eyes fell on the painting-covered safe behind the counter.

He knew what he was thinking when he stole, yes, stole three hundred dollars from the Dark One's safe: Destroy magic, and without the power struggle, everyone would have to stop fighting and learn to get along like ordinary people did. Only the power struggle was only partly a struggle for physical, magical powers, Henry realized belatedly.

That really didn't hit home until they stepped in here, the bell above the door jangling and Henry's expectations failed when a different Belle didn't step up to the counter curiously.

Because she wasn't even in Storybrooke anymore, she was lost to another realm, in a box, under a curse. Could it be any worse than that? Not even the Dark One deserved that, no matter what he overheard his family say.

There was a loud crash in the back and Killian snapping something Henry couldn't make out. Emma finished up with the wards and hurried to the back, and Henry edge in after her. He wasn't sure what happened but really wasn't surprised to see the former pirate throwing a mild tantrum.

"It's the bloody Crocodile own fault that this monster is here! He's probably out for revenge because we wouldn't let him do whatever he pleased with the town's magic!"

"That doesn't matter now!" Regina retorted. "I don't care if Hyde is working with the Oompa-Loompas, that doesn't change the fact that we have to stop him just like every other villain that comes to our town. Now will you stop knocking books of the counter?"

Henry was torn between helping his mother pick up the books or asking if Oompa-Loompas were real. (Judging from the momentary confusion on Hook's face? No. No they weren't. Maybe.) Instead, he went over to the row of cupboards where Rumpelstiltskin had kept his artifacts in a state of orderly chaos. He was almost glad that the Dark One didn't make him organize this, he'd be at it for a decade. How had Belle found her way around?

"She's right Killian, we need to keep level heads in this situation," Emma soothed, holding up her hands.

Hook scowled viciously before tearing open a red tome Henry immediately knew would be useless since it catalogued magic herbs. Hook might be capable in a melee fight or on the sea, but he was not at all helpful during research. He'd heard Belle once ask, before the Snow Queen, if Hook could even read. When Hook replied yes, he bloody well could, Belle almost rolled her eyes and said, "I don't mean maps captain, I mean words, on paper, between the covers of a book. Treasure Island perhaps? 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea?"

Since Hook seemed to be under the impression that Henry could just scribble out whatever they wanted to know in his book, Henry was starting to relate to that exasperation. And didn't that just make him miss "Grandma" more?

Trying to shake himself out of the loop of self-pity, Henry skimmed over the shelves. He started walking down the line, only something on the floor caught the toe of his sneaker and he tripped. (It could've been anything from that metal box to that stack of books to, god, was that a skull? Wasn't Belle supposed to be a maid?) Catching himself on the edge of the cupboard, Henry felt the thing shake and heard the rattle of things on the shelves. He backed up just in time for Regina to shout "Henry! Look out!" and stumbled further when a few items tumbled off the shelf. A bronze ball with geometric designs, a snuff box, a clay statue, and something like a crystal picture frame all hit the floor.

The picture frame shattered.

And the pieces began to glow bright blue.

Henry was yanked back by Regina and pushed behind her. Emma was folded in Hook's arms and all four backed up, squinting as the light grew brighter and brighter until it flashed blinding white and a hot, humid wind rushed through the shop. Pages of books fluttered and the glass unicorn mobile tinkled, and the dust on the floor swirled like mini-tornados.

The light died down at leather-booted feet.

Henry opened his smarting eyes and his jaw dropped open.

With his back to them, Henry didn't recognize the man at first. He was about as tall as Emma, with short-cropped gray hair and pixish ears. He wore a navy blue woolen pea coat and white dress shirt, a tweed vest and olive-colored trousers. Almost like a Victorian adventurer, Henry thought. Only as the man turned, Henry made out a startling profile of a sharp crooked nose and deep brown eyes, and saw the wavy dagger in his hand that fitted the sheath at his hip.

Rumpelstiltskin was back in town.

"Bloody hell," Hook shoved Emma further behind him. "How did you get back in town, Crocodile? What do you want?"

The Dark One stared blankly at the pirate.

Henry had never seen that before, and he'd certainly never seen the flash of fear when the pirate stepped forward with his hook raised in warning. His paternal grandfather stumbled back, his right foot rolling underneath him until he caught himself on the same cupboard Henry had and instinctively brought up the wavy dagger. And that was when all sense flew out the window...

**Because the Dark One's dagger was completely smooth and blank.**


	2. II. Who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe people are reading this so far, like, I'm not 100% on where this is ending up yet and...wow. Thanks to anybody reading! Here's part two!

The first thing he remembered was blue. A bright, shining, pure blue. A tinkle of broken glass maybe, hot and cold air rushing around him.

And then he stood in the middle of a cluttered room, with two women, a dark-haired man, and a young lad staring at him. Something was in his hand that felt like a handle, and he identified it as a weapon just as the man stepped forward brandishing the silver hook attached to his arm in place of a hand.

His arm jerked up with the wavy knife in hand, even while he stumbled backwards. His right leg was _screaming_ with pain radiating up from his throbbing ankle almost to his hip, and putting more than a slight weight on it was torture.

If the man wanted to kill him with his silver hook, then he was as good as dead here.

Only he stopped short, locking his cold eyes on the knife.

It was an odd looking knife. Maybe a fourteen inches at the crooked blade, shy of two feet including the jeweled handle, a ruby set fetchingly in the pommel. The blade was silver, so smoothly polished he could see his own wide brown eyes staring back in the reflection. The knife grabbed the attention of the man in his dark leather coat and his cold blue eyes fell on it with utter confusion, the tension in the room evaporating. Or at least changing...

Somehow.

The young lad, thirteen but with an oddly mature air around him, with dark brown hair and a prominent nose, crept around the dark-haired woman. She and the other adults stared at him with apprehension and suspicion, but the lad looked at him with something like...confusion. Or expectation?

"Where's Belle?" the boy asked.

"Belle?" he repeated, the name sounding foreign on his tongue. He couldn't even recall his own name, come to think of it. How was he to remember this Belle person?

The man had regained some degree of composure, rocking back on his heels and eyeing him with thinly-veiled disgust. "You couldn't wake her, could you? The price for winning back her heart was too great for you, was it Crocodile? You never could fight to keep someone you loved."

Crocodile...Crocodile...that was the second time this man had called him that. He was tall, with dark hair and kohl-rimmed blue eyes, a scruffy stubbly beard and dark clothes, heavy rings on his hand's fingers, the tip of his hook sharpened to a point. Everything in his gut churned when he looked at that man and he blamed it on his hostility. But did they know each other?

"I'm, uh, I'm this Crocodile, am I?" he hesitated.

"Aye," his lip curled. "A scaly, ugly, grinning beast."

A quick glance at his hands, backs and palms, showed a distinctive lack of scales. Brushing his fingertips against his cheek, (stubble-roughened, but otherwise smooth,) he felt his brows furrow. What scales? He...he couldn't quite recall what his face looked like, come to think of it, but he wasn't grinning and there were no scales. What was he missing?

The blonde woman came forward slowly, tensed like she was expecting an attack. He lowered the knife and numbly put it in the sheath at his side, but that didn't seem to help. The woman was pale and her eyes were rimmed red, she looked utterly strung out and exhausted, her forehead crinkling as she asked in a low voice, "Do you remember me? My name is Emma. Emma Swan?"

"Emma..." he sounded carefully. The name was even clumsier on his tongue than Belle was, probably the extra syllable. Some light flared in the blonde's green eyes and immediately died when he added, "Do I know you?"

The dark-haired woman sounded utterly disbelieving even as she said it: "He doesn't remember."

"That's impossible-" the man tried to say, but same woman cut him off quick wave of her hand that could only be described as regal.

"The last time he had that blank look on his face was during the first curse. Do you know who you are?"

"No. I don't remember anything."

"Mr. Gold? Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Who is that? Am I Mr. Gold?"

If it were possible to look more lost than he, the apparent amnesiac in the room, did, than the brunette's wide brown eyes and gaping mouth managed it. Somehow he thought if he'd slapped her she'd look less shocked. The same went for the blonde and the young lad, but the hook-handed man looked unconvinced. He stepped directly in front of Gold and narrowed his eyes, reaching for the dagger tucked at his hip.

When he (Gold?) stepped back, the man's hand shot out and snatched the dagger out his belt. It was rather amazing that he hadn't slit his belly in the process. The man stepped back with the dagger in his fist, holding the blade horizontally between them. "We'll settle this right now."

"Hey!" the lad moved towards the man, but Emma held him back.

"Dark One," the hook-handed man demanded. "I _command_ you to tell me who you are."

A muscle in the dark-haired woman's jaw twitched as her gaze cut back and forth between the man and himself. Her gaze on _him_ was more expecting than annoyed. That honor was reserved for the man, who again, ordered, "Dark One! Who are you?"

Was...oh, was he...

"Are you talking to me?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "Am I the Dark One?"

The brunette folded her arms, glancing coolly at the hook-handed man. "Apparently not."

Gold (as good a name as any,) nodded, then shifted more weight off his bad leg, both hands resting on the low shelf of the cupboard. The lad's gaze traveled down to his leg and he darted away to the front room for a moment while the adults stood staring at him. Finally, the man lowered his arm and studied the dagger, rubbing his thumb against the smooth silver.

Emma came to his side, staring at the blade herself. "It's blank. Totally blank..."

"Aye, no name, no design, nothing."

"It's been hours since we left New York, what happened? Is it a curse?"

"The only transporting curse is the dark curse," the brunette said with some authority. "If it is a curse, it's one I've never seen before. I'll have to ask Zelena and see what she knows."

The boy came back then, with a cane in hand. The shaft was polished dark wood, the handle and tip a gleaming gold. Ironic, Gold supposed, even as the boy brought it to him and offered it.

"Here," he said with a half-smile. "Use this, it's yours."

Gold obeyed, grasping the handle in his right hand. His leg still hurt, but it hurt considerably less. He smiled back at the boy and said, "Thank you."

The lad looked like he was going to smile wider, but then Emma came in and put a hand on his shoulder, tugging him away. "C'mon kid," she said, drawing him out the room. "Let's go back to the apartment and check in."

He looked over his shoulder before he vanished behind the curtain once, giving Gold one last look. Then he was gone.

The hook-handed man gave him one last glare before he, too, left, leaving Gold behind with the brunette. She studied him critically for a moment and then her expression almost softened. She'd taken possession of the dagger, weighing it in her palm before she sighed.

"You don't remember me, do you?"

"I don't remember anything," he said, again. How many people were going to ask him that? It was getting old fast.

The woman gave him something too tired to be a smile, but too soft to be a grimace. She stood up straighter, brushing her raven hair back. "Well then. My name is Regina Mills. Your name here is Mister Gold, the blonde is _Emma_ -" and she paused again, studying him for only a moment before pressing on. "And the boy is her son Henry. Well, he's my son too. But that's a long story."

Gold nodded. "Everything is going to be a long story, I suspect. Why do you speak of curses and Dark Ones? What...what does that mean?"

Regina shifted on the heels of her tall boots. "A long story. A _very_ _long_ story."

"And...that man? Who was he?"

"Killian Jones. Captain Hook," and again, she looked at him like he should remember. But he didn't. "He's Emma's...boyfriend, lover, hell if I know what their label is. They're a couple. Do you...do you remember him?"

"No. But he makes me feel uneasy." It sounded stupid and childish, really, to be afraid of a man. But Gold couldn't help it. Something about Captain Killian "Hook" Jones made him want to keep eyes on him at all times, to not turn his back on him.

Henry, though...Henry...

Why did he feel familiar?

* * *

His grandfather didn't remember Belle.

Henry couldn't say he knew Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold very well. Before he brought Emma to town, Regina always warned him to avoid Mr. Gold because he was a bad, dangerous man. The tales of him throwing out widows and orphans from their homes, and having people's legs broken for not shelling out their rent, seemed a bit exaggerated to young Henry. Occasionally, he'd popped into Mr. Gold's shop to look at his wares, noticing Gepetto's parents and Emma's baby mobile and considering them proof of the curse.

Then Emma came to town and he was too busy trying to convince her to pay the pawnbroker much mind. After the curse was broken, everyone gave the Dark One a wide berth, more than they had Mr. Gold. Except Belle of course. Emma and his grandparents had been quick to keep Henry away from the newly revealed Rumpelstiltskin, even once they'd learned he, too, was Henry's grandfather.

But one thing was a constant to Rumpelstiltskin's character, whether he was the Dark One or the town's monster, and that was Belle. She was his everything, the one person who could tug him away from the dark side. No matter how much the others wanted to ignore that, Henry had read enough of his storybook to prove that True Love couldn't simply be turned on and off.

Something was very, very wrong if Gold couldn't remember Belle.

_Very wrong._

Of course, like always, Emma dragged him back to the loft and away from the action. (One of these days, they were going to learn that Henry was getting to old to be sent home.) Snow and David looked like they just announced that Hyde was in town all over again, and Emma and David were dashing out the apartment before Henry could speak two words. Baby Neal started wailing in the next room when the door shut and Henry edged out the door while his grandmother scurried to but his little uncle back to sleep.

"Henry?" _Darn it._ "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to check on Violet," he said. "I want her to know what's going on."

"Oh," Snow smiled, bouncing her wailing son in her arms. "Alright. But be careful, and call someone me when you get there."

"Okay, I will," Henry smiled back, slipping out. It was amazingly quiet in the outer hall without a screaming baby. And it was only half a lie that he was checking with Violet.

He sent her a text ( **Be careful; Mr. Hyde is in town.** ) and received one back ( **Dr. Jekyll's evil side? How is that possible?** ) before Henry promised to tell her later. Then he started back down the street to the pawnshop.

He didn't like how Emma and Hook grabbed onto the dagger. If he'd had his head screwed on straight, he would've put more energy into finding a way to break the Dark One's curse instead of destroying all magic. But he wasn't thinking straight because Robin Hood was dead because of Hades and Zelena, and now Belle was missing and pregnant, Hyde was in town with god-knew-who, the smartest man in town couldn't remember his own name, and he needed to know what was going on.

Had to help fix it.

Regina and Hook had left the pawnshop. They weren't in the front room, and only Gold was standing in the back. Henry had always thought of the former spinner as Mr. Gold in this world, Rumpelstiltskin in the old one. Or when he was being uber-Dark One-y.

Only...he wasn't being very Dark One-y, if such a term were real, at the moment.

Currently, he was knelt on the floor with a wide square of cloth, picking up shattered pieces from that crystal frame. Henry stood there for a moment, watching the older man pluck translucent blue fragments off the ground with long, steady fingers. He'd removed his coat, and the back of his tweed vest was a sort of dark bronzy colored silk. He didn't wear a tie and the top two buttons were unfastened. He looked so casual that between his short-cropped gray hair and five o'clock shadow, Henry almost wasn't sure it was really Gold at all.

Then he looked up at Henry with familiar brown eyes, curious, and a half-smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Hello. Can I help you with something?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," Henry smiled back nervously. If it was Gold, he looked more like the Light One knight from Isaac's rewritten world. Open. Unburdened. Not as confident but not like a man mired down by secrets and shadows. "My name is Henry."

"Regina mentioned you," he nodded, sitting back on his heels. Well, the good one at least. "You're her son, she said. And...Emma's too?"

He looked a tad perplexed, and Henry couldn't help but smile wider.

"Yeah...Emma's my birth mother, but Regina adopted and raised me. It's complicated, but they're both my moms."

Gold pressed his lips together thoughtfully, then gave a sharp little nod Henry could remember from lighter moments long ago. "Sounds... _complicated_ , indeed. How do I know you?"

He picked up a larger crystal shard, almost as big as a thumb, as Henry crossed the floor. A small pile of crystals sat on the cloth already, and if Henry recalled the size of that mirror thing correctly, there were still more missing.

"I mean, I _guess_ I know you," Gold continued, knitting his brows together. "You all seemed to know who _I_ am, at least. Or was. Good god, this amnesia is a bloody confusing business."

Henry snorted. "Yeah. It is."

"You sound like a lad speaking from experience," the older man chuckled, setting the shard with the others and bending to grope under the desk.

"Well, I guess I am. It's more common than you'd think in this town."

The first curse...Lacey...the missing year, for the Storybrooke citizens and Henry...Elsa...Camelot...yeah. Way too common at this point. It gave Henry a headache and he knew what was going on. Oh boy.

Gold paused in his rummaging, fixing Henry with a searching look. Then he sighed, sitting up again and shifting his legs from underneath him, stretching the bad one out. "What sort of town is this Henry? I don't recall much, but I'm certain most towns don't have curses and witches and bouts of amnesia."

Henry recalled his childhood here, and the missing year. The former had him the only one trying to convince the town something fishy was going on. The latter was the opposite, everyone in town trying to keep him from finding anything fishy. His life was made that much harder by people refusing to tell him the truth, or clue him in to the dangers of this seemingly sleepy Maine hamlet.

"Welcome to Storybrooke. What do you want to know first?"

Gold tilted his head to the side for a moment. Then he nudged the crystal pile, causing the pieces to clink together almost musically.

"I suppose it would help a great deal if you could tell me what this is. Or was, before it broke."

"I always thought it was a picture frame. Or maybe a mirror. This was your shop, but I never really got to look around back here too much," Henry admitted. "You either didn't want me poking through your stuff or were afraid of me turning into a toad."

Henry could almost see the moment Gold realized he was serious, his entire body going still. Then he took a deep breath, his eyes drifting away as he nodded slowly.

"I see...so...do you know if it glows or not?"

"Well...it glowed really brightly before you appeared...maybe it's a portal."

"A portal?"

"Yeah, um, we have a couple of those too. Usually from magic wands or hats, but Regina's mother could use mirrors as portals. Why? Do you remember something about a portal?"

Gold hesitated, running his tongue over his lower lip. "I remember...I remember a light. A blue light. And I remember wind, and this, uh, this sort of...shattering. Like glass. I don't know, I was just thinking that if I mend it somehow, I might remember something."

Henry eyed the pile of crystals. The crystals were all on top of a polished silver disk, which Henry had assumed was glass but was actual silver, and faint runes were nearly invisible, etched into the silver around the rim where the crystals seemed to grow over them. Well, he was never an expert on magic, but he had been six once. He'd dropped a Christmas ornament that looked like a stallion and cried because he thought Regina would be upset with him, but then his mother took him to the kitchen table and spread out a sheet of newspaper, placing the horse and the broken tail and leg down, saying, "Just a little magic and it'll be good as new."

There was a touch of irony, as well as a certain sweetness, to that memory. And Henry grinned at Gold, crouching down and picking up a stray, small fragment to add to the reclaimed pieces on the cloth.

"Lucky for you, I know a little magic of my own. Help me find a tube of Krazy Glue."


	3. III. Lasagna, Pop Tarts, and Blue.

Regina studied this new Gold from head to toe critically. He seemed smaller somehow, and Regina had always known her former mentor was a small-framed man, but without the black suit or leather...he just seemed less imposing.

He had no tie, and the collar of his white shirt was open. There was the faintest trace of stubble on his jaw, his normal long hair was cropped short and silvery gray with a little bit sideburns, and his brown eyes were open and earnest. Also, and perhaps Regina was just noticing this for the first time, he wasn't the lean, angular man he'd been when magic first came to Storybrooke. There was some unexpected weight softening the planes of his face, a bit of a spread at his middle beneath his vest.

He looked so... _normal_. He really looked like a mild-mannered older man.

That was, for some reason, more disturbing than the leather and dragonhide ensemble.

But his hands fidgeted with items on the counter like they couldn't sit still. And he couldn't seem to stand still for very long, rocking on the heel of his good foot and twisting his cane around. And that was familiar enough that Regina almost smiled.

Almost.

"So...you have no memories, at all?" she asked. "Not even a little bit?"

Gold paused in his prodding of a glass jar, pressing his lips together as his brows knit.

"I...I think...I'm not sure. I think I remember...water. Something about water. A lot of water. Like a...a sea? Out a window? But there's light but not...not like the sun, it's like this lighting," he gestured up at the bulb in the overhanging light fixture. "And...blue. I remember blue most of all. And there was...there were people but I can't remember what they looked like."

"Then how do you know there were people there?"

Gold thought about it for a moment. "There were voices. I can hear voices. Mostly male, a few female. I think. That's not very helpful, is it?"

"No," Regina smiled wistfully. "No it isn't."

Something about "water" and "blue" kept niggling at the back of Regina's mind even after she left the shop. She had promised to come back, if only because without her Evil Queen self, Regina didn't feel as keenly distrustful of her former mentor. Even if she did, the man was about as harmful as a puppy. Still...

She kept hold of the dagger. For now. Tomorrow she would give it back to him, since it would appear there was no purpose for it other than the obvious purpose of a dagger.

Water...blue...a sea...

Hmm...

But all investigation was put off when Regina got home. A piercing wail rang through the house (apparently Zelena had already moved in,) and Regina found Zelena pacing back and forth with a shrieking pink-wrapped bundle and a frantic look on her face in the living room. While she was prepared to embrace her sister and let bygones be bygones, it was clear Granny Lucas was not. She had crinkled her nose when Regina asked if there was a room at the inn Zelena could have, as if she were asking to leave a sack full of dead weasels there instead.

And her exact response was something like: "You can either put her up in that big mansion of yours, or you can stick her back in the hospital, but she's not sleeping under my roof."

Granny had been right about one thing: Regina's house was plenty big enough for her sister and Robin's daughter. Robin.

"Hush, hush, hush, hush now, oh please stop crying my little sweet pea, it's alright, I've got you," Zelena practically begged, and Robin only wailed louder.

Regina had sudden recollections of another baby that filled her stately home with crying thirteen years ago. Holding her arms out, Regina asked, "Let me try?"

The baby was thrust into her arms and Zelena stepped back, wringing her hands. "What's wrong with her? Why won't she stop? She's not hungry and she doesn't need changing!"

Regina shifted Robin in her arms, giving her a little bounce. There was a small hiccup and suddenly the wailing died down to a soft burble, tiny hands clinging to Regina's coat. Zelena's blue eyes widened in disbelief and the former Queen gave her a sheepish smile, continuing to bounce the soothed baby.

"You're too stressed," she said as calmly as she could. "I did the same thing with Henry when he was a baby. As soon as I calmed down and let him in, he calmed right down too. Babies don't come with instruction manuals, unfortunately. You just have to keep trying until you get it right."

Zelena stared down at her daughter, hesitating before accepting her back. Robin almost instantly whimpered and Regina could _see_ her sister tense. Giving her a look that was clearly meant to say, _'Calm down, she won't bite, she doesn't even have teeth yet, chill.'_   Which was met with an irritated glare that translated roughly as, _'Don't tell me what to do!'_

And then Robin started fussing again.

It was shaping up to be a long evening very unsuited to talking about amnesiac sorcerers with or without magic and potential new enemies in town. And Regina felt guilty for not realizing Henry wasn't around until the door unlocked and shut again, and her son came in just a few minutes before dinner. Upstairs Zelena was occupied with giving Robin her bottle, and for the moment, everything was quiet. Ah.

Regina pulled out another plate and dished up a plate of lasagna for Zelena when Henry sat down and tucked in to the second plate on the table. For a moment...well it was almost like the old days, when it was just the two of them. Things were simple then, not perfect by any means, but simple. Regina wouldn't go back to being the bitchy, vindictive creature she was three years ago but at least there weren't villains of the month and magic portals popping up left and right.

Henry was as bright as ever though: "Are you expecting someone for dinner?"

"Zelena is going to be staying with us for awhile," Regina said, carefully moving the strings of mozzarella onto the plate so they didn't stain the tablecloth when she set the plate down. "She's taking care of Robin right now."

She missed how Henry's nose crinkled at the baby's name.

"How long is awhile?"

"Probably just until we get business settled with Hyde. Speaking of, aren't you staying with Emma tonight?"

"The loft's a little crowded these days," Henry answered. Almost too quickly. "Besides, both places have a screaming baby, right? It won't make that much of a difference."

Regina set down the plate and arched a brow. "Henry. Emma has a house now."

The smile on her son's face faltered, as she predicted. Her little prince wasn't telling her something, apparently more interested in his lasagna. Her variation might be better than the frozen stuff at Granny's Diner, but it wasn't that interesting.

"I don't feel like sharing Emma tonight," Henry replied at length. "I haven't even seen her since she dropped me at the loft."

Regina might've crowed in victory at being the one Henry chose once. Instead, she sat down at her own plate and picked up her fork. "We've all been spread a little thin lately. Between the Dark Ones and Camelot and the Underworld-"

"I know." Henry said flatly.

Before she could ask why Henry was taking that tone with her, Zelena came into the kitchen and sat down at her place. Across from Henry. And for one moment they just stared at each other over the table until Zelena broke the silence:

"Don't you live with Emma?"

Regina barely resisted face-palming and wishing she had something stronger than water to drink right now. Her sister was unfortunately tactless and obviously never had someone to teach her to be polite, her tone coming off as snotty and disbelieving whether she meant it or not.

Henry gave Zelena stiff smile that reminded Regina, disturbingly, of Mr. Gold when he was wearing that damned poker-face. "Joint custody," he replied, then shifted his attention solely to his mother to the left. "Do we have any Krazy Glue?"

"Why?"

"Violet dropped a vase or something while she and her dad were moving into their apartment. I promised I'd help her fix it tomorrow."

"There might be some in the junk drawer, or maybe the art box in the laundry room?" Regina wasn't 100% sure she wanted her son dating some girl from Camelot, but in her defense, Violet was a nice, sensible girl and during the drive back to Storybrooke from New York they started talking about horses because her family owned a stable. (Oh, such irony...) And "fixing a vase" didn't seem to be code for anything indecent so why not?

"Thanks," Henry smiled, then wolfed down his lasagna with the haste of a hungry, growing boy.

Zelena seemed to wait a moment before asking, "So you live here, and with Emma and the Charmings?"

Henry nodded, his mouth full.

"What about that new house your mum has, Chateau Swan or whatever. Are you going to have a room there too?" There was no response for a beat, and then she added, "I mean, I imagine her pirate isn't eager for you to share nights with her there-"

"Thank you, Zelena," Regina cut in, shooting her a warning look.

Suddenly Henry didn't look like he was hurrying because he was hungry, he looked like he didn't want to be at the table. He got up not too long after that still chewing the last bite and went to put his plate away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I'm gonna go try to write some, night Mom," Henry came over to peck her cheek and trotted out with sparing Zelena a second glance.

* * *

The idea of Zelena carrying Robin's baby because she tricked him into thinking she was Maid Marian was disgusting enough. Now, she got to keep Baby Hood (the town's unofficial name for their newest resident because Robin hadn't had time to name her before he was murdered,) and was sleeping in their house instead of her farmhouse on the edge of town. Had everyone forgotten about that place?

Y'know...where she kept Rumpelstiltskin _prisoner in a cellar?!_

Apparently so.

Henry couldn't seem to write anything tonight, so he went to sleep. Baby Hood (he couldn't bring himself to call her "Robin", he just couldn't,) woke up exactly three times, about three hours apart. Henry calculated the quiet periods as about two hours, fifty-eight minutes, and twenty-two seconds. Baby Hood was less fussy at two weeks old than his baby uncle Neal was, who woke up shrieking no less than every two hours, forty-six minutes, and thirty-four seconds, on average.

At about five-thirty, about one hour after the baby had last fallen quiet, Henry decided he was wasting time just laying in bed staring at his ceiling. He got dressed and grabbed his trusty backpack and scarf, throwing a few things into it including his key to the shop, the half-full tube of Krazy Glue, a PB and J for lunch and a Pop Tart for breakfast at the shop, and after a moment of poking through his family photos and cellphone pictures, realized he didn't actually have a picture of Belle to show Gold. That was unfortunate...how had that happened? So he grabbed his storybook instead and turned to the Beauty and the Beast story, examining the watercolors of Belle.

They were faint likenesses, but maybe it would be enough to jog Gold's memory...?

But then he would have to explain what Gold was...and how he was sort of the town villain...maybe have to explain to him how he'd spent three-hundred years searching for a son he lost...because of his father Peter Pan and Henry's own aunt/former flame's illegitimate, abandoned daughter...

Henry ended up leaving the storybook behind.

There would be time for _that_ tangled tale later.

Slipping out the house at a quarter to six, Henry started down the misty morning streets of Storybrooke to Gold's Pawnshop. It wasn't until he was unlocking the door and saw a light flicker on in Granny's Diner that Henry realized he probably shouldn't be walking around the deserted streets alone with Hyde and his minions running amok...that seemed like a good way to get kidnapped.

Henry quickened his pace and dug out his key to unlock the shop. Only...then the door opened.

Gold stood there and it took Henry one embarrassing second to remember how different his grandfather looked now. This morning, his vest was unbuttoned and he was in his socks, clothes rumpled like he'd been...sleeping? Had he slept here?

Oh. Of course he had. He didn't know there was a big pink Victorian on the edge of town for him to "go home" to.

"Uh, hi?" Henry smiled awkwardly. "I'm, uh, I was gonna start gluing the crystals together. I brought the stuff."

"That Silly Glue?" Gold asked, blinking as he stepped out of Henry's way.

"Krazy Glue, yeah. Do you want to eat first? I brought, uh, a sandwich, and Pop Tart. Granny's isn't open until seven across the street."

Gold peered out the door to the diner across the street curiously. "I think I'll eat the sandwich now, please," he answered, limping into the backroom with Henry close behind. "I'm hungry. This is an odd sort of home. There's no food. There is tea, I was making a pot before you came in. Would you care for some?"

"Uh...sure. Why not?"

Their breakfast was spread out on the backroom work table, one PB and J, two unwrapped Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts, and two mismatched cups of steaming black tea. Henry poured a lot of milk and sugar into his, enough that he caught Gold smiling amusedly. That was unusual, but not...unpleasant.

"So...do you remember anything else? A name, a face, a word?" Henry asked, picking the crusts off his Pop Tart. "Something we can use to figure out where you came from?"

Gold shrugged, sipping his tea. "I told your mother, er, Miss Regina, that I remembered something about a sea. There are people's voices, too, but I don't really remember the faces. Well...well actually, I think I do remember something about a girl, small, in...um, blue and white? I think? Blue and white clothes."

Henry felt a bit of hope flicker in his chest. "Do you remember what she looks like?"

"Nnn-no. No, I'm sorry," Gold shook his head, then paused. "I think I was in a cave. It was so dark that when the blue lights flashed it was all I could see. Do you know anything about that?"

Henry shook his head. If it were anyone else, he knew they'd go to Belle, or Gold himself. But Belle wasn't here, and Gold didn't remember. So...they would just have to think like Belle.

Motioning to the books lining the shelves and stacked on various surfaces, Henry said, "We could have a look though. If there's nothing here we could try the library, too. Blue glowing crystals, water, and maybe caves. That's not the vaguest lead I've ever researched."

Gold's forehead creased ponderously.

"This thing...the, ah, the stranger arriving without clear memories thing, does it really happen all that often?"

"In the last year? At least three or four times. If you count the entire kingdom of Camelot as one incident, of course."

"As in..." Gold made a motion like he was flicking an invisible sword around. "King Arthur's Camelot? Merlin? Excalibur and the Round Table?"

"Yup."

The older man took a long sip of tea.

"Okay," he sighed, almost resigning himself to the madness of Storybrooke in that one sip. "Well, let's get to work then. Maybe the sooner I have some answers the sooner I can make heads or tails of this situation."

"Maybe," Henry agreed, fishing the tube out his backpack. "This oughta be like putting a puzzle back together. We should try fitting the pieces together first, then gluing them together. You can't un-glue them once they're stuck."

Gold nodded, rolling his head towards the crystals on the table. Henry noticed that some of them were already grouped together in what looked like matching sets.

"I thought so, I've already got a few bits pieced together if you'd like to start gluing them together."

Henry nodded with a smile. He was more relieved than he expected he would be. Even without a clue to his true identity, Rumpelstiltskin was clever. _Very_ clever. This repairing should be the easy part, though. The trick would be finding what the portal/mirror did...and where it led. And finding Belle...

What was he getting himself in to?

* * *

Mother Superior and the Blue Fairy were hardly that different, compared to some of Storybrooke's alter egos. She was the supreme authority of her girls in the convent, and knew exact what was best for each one. If Astrid was increasingly protesting how she was shut away in the bowels of the building with a menial task when Leroy should show up to do some repair work to the building or gardens, then she would just have to remember that everything was done for her own good.

However, it was not Leroy, nor Belle, nor any of the expected visitors hurrying up the walk.

Killian "Captain Hook" Jones.

Green had told her about him, and while Blue respected him and his position as a hero aligned with Snow and Charming and their daughter, she couldn't say she approved of everything about him. In the six weeks of peace that came after the Dark One was banished by Belle, Jones had practically spent every waking moment by Emma's side. One of the girls, probably Lilac, had giggled about how they were Siamese Twins joined at the hook. There was something odd about that, but at the same time, Snow and Charming were excellent leaders. They wouldn't let a scoundrel get so close to the Savior.

And if Blue treated him with the frostiest of her manners, that was her own business.

"The Crocodile is back in town," he announced without preamble, planting himself in front of Blue in the gardens that morning. "He says he doesn't remember anything and he acts like he doesn't know what the Dark One is."

"I see..." Blue said slowly. "And why are you telling me this?"

Jones flexed an eyebrow up. "He's your bloody enemy, isn't he? Rheul Gorm, the greatest champion of the light. You know him better than even I do, and you don't think he's lying?"

Hmm. That was a decent question.

"Well...I wouldn't know unless I saw him personally. Rumpelstiltskin is an exceedingly cunning man, as the Dark One or as a mortal. Does he possess the dagger?"

"No, Regina has it. She says she's going to study it, the bloody thing doesn't look right. It's blank. There's nothing on it."

Oh.

"That's...unexpected. There's always been a name on the dagger."

"Aye. So what has he done, and where is Belle?"

The Blue Fairy thought for a moment. Belle was missing? How odd. Perhaps somewhere in the realms she'd finally abandoned the hopeless crusade of turning him into a hero. As long as the curse of the Dark One festered in his veins, Rumpelstiltskin would never be anything more than a villain. Aha. That gave her an idea on how to check the veracity of the former imp's claim.

"I think I know a way to check," she said. "Bring him to the convent and we'll see what's truly in his heart."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Blue Fairy, everyone. Shady as snot since 2011.
> 
> Note: This story is gonna go how I would like it to, meaning, I'll pick and chose what characters I want from the spoilers. Meaning I'm NOT going to Agrabah to burn up an "episode" on a one-shot set of characters we never see again, (sorry Team Aladdin, I really love you guys,) but perhaps they will make a minor, recurring appearance if the muse allows it. Thank you for your patience.


	4. IV. Two Babies, Two Households

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part A of this chapter takes place at the Charming loft the day before, when everyone had just gotten back to Storybrooke. Part B takes place when Regina wakes up the next morning. Just for clarification, Now that I look at it, it's a little confusing, so, now you know.

Last night, Emma hadn't felt like going to her big blue house. She decided to spent the night at the loft with her parents and baby brother, who was rather sweet when he wasn't wailing like a banshee. She held onto little Neal while Snow bustled around in the kitchen, not minding that her brother was tugging on her hair too much because his little baby grip wasn't painful. David said something about him having a strong swordsman's hands once, but Snow had argued that maybe he would want to be an archer. Such was her family; Where your parents argued over what medieval weapon to train you with instead of what sport you'd play in school.

Then there was a knock at the door and David answered it, letting Killian in.

It was a little hard to believe they were True Love, really. It just seemed so impossible that Emma would actually find her soulmate, better half, Prince Char-She couldn't use _that_ analogy for Mr. Right because Prince Charming was her father, but the point still stood: She and Killian. Together.

He smiled at her with that smirking twist of the lips she thought of as his _Emma Smile_ , and then refocused his attention on her parents.

"Did you hear who's back?"

"Gold? Yeah," David nodded, and Snow paused in withdrawing her casserole from the oven. "We weren't quite sure what to do about that yet."

"I've talked with the Blue Fairy," Killian said, then. "She and I both have our doubts about the Crocodile's convenient amnesia. She proposes a test, if we can bring him to the convent tomorrow. Then we'll see what's truly in his heart."

David frowned. "What does that mean? Exactly?"

Killian shifted his feet apart, some sort of habit he picked up from standing on unstable decks, Emma imagined, gesturing lightly with his ringed fingers.

"Look, I knew the Crocodile when he was just a spinner. I know him better than most, but no one truly knows the Dark One like Rheul Gorm. She's been the greatest enemy of every Dark One for eight-hundred years, clearly, she would know better than anyone if he were lying and did something to the dagger."

"That is true," Snow nodded. "My father told me once that the Blue Fairy has always negated the worst of the Dark One's deeds. She turned Archie into Jiminy Cricket to watch over Gepetto after Rumpelstiltskin turned the his parents into those horrible puppets."

Emma gave Neal a little bounce when he start squirming out of her grip. "So...what does Blue want to do to Gold?"

Killian put his hand over his chest. "She wants to rip out his heart and have a look. It's the only way to truly see what's going on there. The Crocodile is an expert at playing the long game, and until Regina can figure out how to make the dagger work again, it's the only way he can't lie to us."

David's frown deepened, but he said nothing. Snow, however, widened her eyes in disbelief. "The Blue Fairy can rip out hearts? But that's, wait, isn't that dark magic?"

"Well it's not exactly going full Queen of Hearts," Killian shrugged, shifting his stance again, eyes falling on Emma again. She wondered if he was thinking about how close she came to killing Merida. "But unless anyone else has a better idea, what choice do we have?"

David folded his arms over his chest. "Where is the dagger now? Does Gold have it?"

"Regina took it," Killian shook his head with something almost like a scowl creeping into his expression. "She and Zelena were going to look it over."

A part of Emma hadn't wanted to let go of the dagger, and she was almost tempted to go over to Regina's house right now. And the scary part was, she couldn't tell if it was some leftover Darkness compelling her to keep it and hide it somewhere safe, or the rational sense that letting Rumpelstiltskin run unrestrained would be a terrible idea. Maybe that was why Killian seemed agitated, too. He kept rubbing at his ear like he did when he was uncomfortable, eyeing the apartment like Cruella de Vil would pop up from behind the sofa.

Thinking of Cruella brought up thoughts of the Underworld and her uncle... _ewwww_...

Switching subjects, Emma refocused on the problem at hand: She knew better than anyone, except maybe Regina or Hook, that Gold was as slippery as a buttered squirrel and pinning down his scheme was impossible. Even when you found a clue, it was because he wanted you to and not usually because you were clever. The only time Gold or his Enchanted Forest counterpart had been defeated was when his greed for power got ahead of him, when he tried to accept the deal for Cinderella's "twins" in the old world, and when Belle stopped him from murdering Killian with the dagger...

Emma's superpower had faded somewhat in the face of magic, but she somehow instinctively knew this man with the short-cropped hair and not a stitch of black in his clothes was Gold, er, Rumpelstiltskin, uh, _Goldstiltskin_ , and that also made her think he was telling the truth about his memory loss. But portal spells in this town had a habit of giving short-term memory loss. Maybe they could figure out a way to unlock the lost memories like with the last curse from Camelot?

But that would take too long. Hyde was in Storybrooke right today, (with Gold's help no less,) and so was the amnesiac bringing his own set of problems to the table. It also raised the question of where Belle was, and Emma wished their resident genius was here to help.

"I think the fairies are our best chance at finding the truth," Emma agreed, looking down at the floor. She saw a pair of Henry's shoes lying by the door. Where was he anyway? Probably spending the night at Regina's again, he'd been doing that since Neal was born and, subsequently, wailed through the night. "Gold has some explaining to do."

David hesitated, but nodded, too. "He's never done anything without a reason before, that would explain why he's back in Storybrooke. The question is why though, and where's Belle?"

"If the lass has any sense, she and her baby are far away from him," Killian snorted.

Snow came over and took Neal out of Emma's arms. Whenever they'd been away, Snow got very clingy with Neal, Emma had noticed since his birth. It was a miracle after he was born during her temporary position as mayor that she'd even put him down. The mother gently tapped her son's nose, then and talked in a higher-pitched voice to her youngest child. "Mother's always know what's best for their babies. Right baby?"

Neal gurgled.

"That's right, I do know best," Princess Snow White, bandit and rebel leader, cooed, making little noises as she pressed kisses all over Neal's little downy head. " _Mwah!_ I love you too, _mwah-mwah_!"

Emma rolled her eyes but couldn't quite keep from smiling. Then, Killian's arm curled around her shoulder, pressing a kiss of his own against her cheek.

"Fancy a walk, Swan?" he asked with a wicked smile. The kind that made Emma happy his head was angled away from her parents as they played with her baby brother. It promised absolutely nothing chivalrous in her near future.

But...

"I think I should stay here tonight," she said, bitterly disappointed at the wicked smile's disappearance. "Whenever Mary-I mean, Snow, starts cooking casseroles she's feeling antsy about her family. I don't think I should leave them alone tonight."

"Well, they won't be alone with your baby brother here, will they?" Killian smirked a bit, tugging her closer to his side. "Come on, love, when was the last time we had time for ourselves, hmm? Was it before the Queens of Darkness, or before Camelot's grand disaster?"

Emma sighed, smiling sheepishly. "Probably mid-disaster in Camelot, before...everything." She would probably always feel incredibly guilty for betraying her pirate's trust and making him a Dark One. It was all her fault. If only she hadn't been so stupid and tried harder to get that damned spark, gotten Excalibur repaired faster and cut the Darkness out or whatever was supposed to happen...well, there was no use in dwelling on the past.

Not with her future right here, grinning like he already knew he'd won. Which he had.

With Snow calling "I'll keep dinner warm for you!" behind them, Emma felt she couldn't just abandon her parents when Killian started leading them out the door and after their short walk, towards her blue house. But...she was so tired of everything being so hectic she couldn't have five minutes with her boyfriend, and there was no telling what would happen tomorrow.

So there was very little talking done...

* * *

Regina's night had little talking either. She got out the dagger and explained what happened at the shop, but before they could delve into theories and magical sciences, Robin started fussing. They decided to pick it up in the morning.

And then Robin woke up in the middle of the night. And then again.

The last time baby Robin woke up was at four in the morning or so, and Regina got up to check on her. Zelena was pacing back and forth with the baby in her arms, and a frantic look on her face. No sooner had Regina asked, "Is everything okay?" when she received an arm full of shrieking infant and a blur of red hair passed by.

"Please put her to sleep!" Zelena begged as she left. "I am _exhausted_ and she _won't_ calm down!"

It was on the tip of Regina's tongue to ask what, exactly, gave Zelena the idea she _wasn't_ exhausted too. But by then her sister was gone, and the screaming remained.

So Regina settled into the rocker left over from when Henry was a baby and started rocking. She gave the baby girl a stiff pat on the back after placing a towel over her shoulder, just to be sure she wasn't gassy. Robin hiccupped a bit but didn't quite settle for another few minutes, and once she did, she curled up with her little face burrowed into Regina's neck.

It was amazing how adorable a baby was when it wasn't spitting up fluids, filling up a diaper, and voicing its displeasure with a high-pitched wail.

Regina must've fallen asleep soon after, because she woke up with the sun shining in her face, and Robin still peaceful dozing on her chest. And a stiff neck. Stiffness that went down to her back. Oh god, her ass was asleep too-

Robin woke at her squirming with a cute little squeak, and Regina's slight annoyance melted away.

Cuteness must be designed by Mother Nature to allow people to tolerate the annoyances that came with babies...

Zelena came in then and took the baby, cooing softly and carrying her downstairs presumably to eat breakfast together. Regina shuffled to her room and snapped her fingers to put on fresh clothes and fix her hair and makeup. She'd somewhat perfected the art of doing her own cosmetics during her first curse, especially when Henry was a baby and toddler and needed constant attention. But for mornings like this, magic was a useful tool.

And there was also the standby: Strong black coffee.

Zelena had either made or magicked up eggs, bacon, and buttered toast in the time that Regina came downstairs. She sat in Regina's usual seat at the head of the table feeding Robin from a bottle, and Regina didn't see the point in being too bothered by that. After eating her toast and downing half her hot coffee, Regina realized that there was someone missing.

"Where's Henry?"

"Hmm? Oh, I dunno," Zelena shrugged. "Haven't seen him."

The clock read ten past seven in the morning, and while Henry was something of an early riser, now that Regina thought about it, there wasn't even a bowl of cereal in the sink. And her son was like her in the sense that he wasn't functional until his blood sugar rose after breakfast. Hmm...

Robin gurgled at the end of her bottle, her tiny face crumpling up. Regina recognized that look and it distracted her for a moment. "You need to burp her."

Zelena hesitated for a moment, then held Robin up to her shoulder and gave her a pat. Regina almost got up to say "wait" but it was too late.

"Oh my god!" Zelena gasped, pushing the baby away. She looked in horror from the whitish stain dribbling down her back to the chubby baby blinking owlishy in her arms. "She just threw up on me!"

Regina got up and grabbed a kitchen towel. "They do that. Always put a towel down. You might also look into bringing spare changes of clothes when you go out, babies will always find a way to make a mess."

The witch's nose crinkled up. "Ugh...disgusting. Why can't you be a proper lady, sweet pea?"

Robin offered no comment.

Eventually, once everything was cleaned up and Robin was not spitting up on anything, they finally started getting down to the business of the Dark One's dagger...

"I have no idea." Zelena declared.

Regina held in a sigh.

"Okay," the former Queen sighed. "But do you have any idea what, or who, could strip everything off the dagger? The only time I've seen the name fade off the dagger was when Rumpelstiltskin was dying, and he most certainly is not dead."

"Hmm..." Zelena tapped her chin. "Well, it wasn't a Dark Curse that brought him to Storybrooke. Those bring a whole legion of people, not just one Dark One. Maybe that has something to do with it. A portal then? Maybe we should go to the shop and have a look."

That made sense. Two sorceresses were better than one at finding magical disturbances. Zelena picked up Robin in her pink blanket and Regina suggested they leave the baby with someone. Granny, or Mary-Mar-Uh, _Snow_. (That would take some getting used to.) Regina's maternal instincts recoiled at the idea of bringing little Robin to the pawnshop to search for answers, but Zelena gave Regina that _'I know what I'm doing look'_ again and bundled her up in a pink blanket with little white and lavender spots on it. It was one Regina recognized because Robin had bought it not too long after the baby girl was born.

It was comforting that his daughter was wrapped in a symbol of his love, but it also painfully reminded Regina that Robin was no longer there for her. For either of them. Roland had an extended family of uncles to take care of him in the Merry Men, but that didn't mean Regina didn't miss her little almost-stepson any less. Poor thing...

Well, crying wasn't going to help anyone right now. There would be time for that later.

Speaking of children...

Regina dug her phone out her pocket and dialed Henry's number...


	5. V. A Man Named Gold

Violet got a text from Henry, (cellphones made keeping in touch very, very easy in this land,) at about mid-morning when she asked where he was: **My grandfather's shop, very busy, what's up?**

**Just wondering where you were. Can I come over?**

**Sure. :)**

Violet had a bit of money in her pocket, well, figuratively. She wore a pale blue dress fluttering below her knees and a white cardigan sweater, and a violet headband that matched her slippers. No pockets. But she did have a deep purple purse with her money in it, and so Violet bought a bag of sandwiches from Mrs. Lucas's diner and carried them across the street to the pawnshop.

When she got there, the door was unlocked, like always, and the bell overhead jingled merrily. Henry poked his head out and smiled at her after a beat. "Hey."

"Hi Henry," Violet smiled back, hugging the paper bag. "I brought some sandwiches, are you hungry?"

Henry hesitated. "Well-"

A man appeared behind Henry. He wasn't very tall, in fact, he was only a little bit taller than Henry and leaned heavily on a cane. He was in his early fifties maybe, with short silvery hair and an unshaven face, and dark brown eyes. His clothes were a bit rumpled, but still fine, and he nodded politely at Violet.

"Hello, miss."

"Uh, hello, sir," Violet blinked. He looked sort of familiar...

"Violet, this is Mr. Gold," Henry said slowly. Slowly, like, _'I'll tell you more later,_ ' and Violet smiled in recognition. "Gold, this is my friend Violet."

"Ah, yes," Gold's lips curled up ever-so-slightly at the edges, his dark eyes darting between Henry and Violet for a moment. (He didn't look like the frightening figure he'd been in New York, but then again, all she clearly recalled about him were impressions of black and a looming presence.) "Miss Violet, how do you?"

"Um, well, thank you," Violet said, fighting the urge to curtsey at the formality in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

Henry hesitated only a moment before letting her by. The backroom had even more knick-knacks and trinkets than the front of the shop did, with more books and alchemical supplies scattered around. Most of the work table was cleared off, with only three things spread out on it: A pile of pale blue crystals, a silver frame with a few crystals on it, and a small green tube with a red cap.

"I'm not quite sure what this is," Gold started, waving a hand at the mirror frame. "But it is rather important that we repair it. It's sort of like a puzzle at this point, fitting the pieces together again."

Violet nodded, setting the paper bag on a different counter so it wouldn't get in the way. "Can I help with anything?"

Henry pursed his lips a bit. "You want to help us?"

"Of course! I had fun exploring New York with you," Violet said, glancing only momentarily at Mr. Gold, sitting with his head bent down fitting two crystals together as if to add, _'Even the more dangerous bits.'_ "What can I do?"

Henry didn't seem to know what to say, exactly, gaping at her for a long minute before Gold chimed, "If you're any good at puzzles, you can help me fit these together. Or let Henry show you how to stick them together with his Insanity Glue. I think I'd like to stop for lunch though."

Violet smiled, holding up her bag. "I brought sandwiches."

"Uh, yeah. Yeah! Lunch, lunch is good, I could use a break," Henry nodded, quickly opening the paper bag and pulling out some of the sandwiches and passing them out. "And it's _Krazy Glue_ , by the way."

Gold slowly ate one sandwich, but Henry and Violet attacked the other three with the gusto of hungry teens. They split the last one, a BLT, Henry generously eating Violet's tomatos. (She didn't like them, they were slimy on her tongue.) Gold washed his hands in the water closet off to the side  and went back to matching the fragments together, and after washing his hands too, Henry mended together the pieces with the clear substance in the green tube. The magic glue, Violet supposed.

Violet helped Henry's grandfather with his task. The crystals were beautiful blue things that jingled sweetly when they clinked together. They shimmered in the light and were obviously more than simple crystals. Probably magic.

A lot of things in Storybrooke were magic, actually. There was a convent of fairy-nuns, and of course there were Henry's mothers, but there was also...Henry's grandfather. Violet didn't understand why he didn't just wiggle his fingers and mend the mirror again, but then again...she didn't understand why he was in Storybrooke with short hair and a different wardrobe either. Not if he didn't come home with them yesterday and he couldn't teleport outside of town.

Henry had some explaining to do.

And then, of all the things that could have happened, Mr. Gold asked, "So, Miss Violet, Henry said you're rather new to Storybrooke too?"

Violet glanced at her friend. Henry met her eyes and quite clearly asked, _'Play along, please?'_ (Make that a _lot_ of explaining to do.)

"Yes. I came from Camelot."

"Oh. Is your father a knight then? I mean," Gold paused, clinking the two bits in his hands together absently. "I suppose not _everyone_ in Camelot is a knight, there must be, I dunno, farmers and merchants too-"

Violet smiled. "My father was a knight, yes, and we had a stable too. Though he was from this land originally, in Conneticut."

Gold nodded with a little smile of his own. "I'm not sure where that is, but that's very interesting. Did he fall through a portal?"

"I think it was portal, I'm not sure," Violet admitted. "But a curse was what brought us here to town. Those happen a lot here, apparently."

"Perhaps it's a sort of Bermuda Triangle effect," he suggested then, and Violet confessed she didn't know what that meant, but Henry must've known because he got a very confused look on his face, eyeing his grandfather strangely.

"The Bermuda Triangle? Well it's, um, I think it's this area at sea," Gold explained, spreading out his hands. "Anchored by three points to form a triangle. And in the triangle all manner of mysterious things happen, ships vanishing, people disappearing, never to be seen again. No one is sure if it's magnetic fields, ocean currents, or gaseous pockets under the sea that cause the effects, though..."

In the next hour, Violet quite forgot that this man had tried to harm them in New York. Henry kept looking confused, but he didn't seem worried. In fact, he eventually looked rather interested when they switched topics from the mysterious triangle at sea to somewhere called Atlantis. A scholar of some sort believed Atlantis was on the seafloor of the Bermuda Triangle, but both Mr. Gold and Henry disagreed, they asserted, because of the geography.

"Is Atlantis where the merfolk live?" Violet asked.

"I don't think so," Henry hesitated. "Ariel didn't say, and, uh, I didn't want to ask Urusla." He gave his grandfather a searching look, like he'd been doing every so often, but Mr. Gold seemed to take this as an opening to further answer Violet's question.

"Atlantis is a lost city. According to the philosopher Plato, it sunk beneath the sea thousands of years ago," he made a graceful motion with his hand to indicate sinking. "Some think it's a myth, others scour the sea for proof of it's existence. It doesn't make sense that a Greek would know about an island on the otherside of the world from him, so I suppose it would be much closer to Greece."

"Like Europe, maybe?" Henry chimed automatically, seemingly without thinking. And maybe he hadn't, he seemed as interested as Violet now.

"Perhaps, though I'm not..."

And for the first time, Gold got a dazed sort of look on his face, staring down at the nearly reassembled crystal fragment in front of him. Henry leaned forward a bit, critically studying his grandfather in a way that made Violet do the same. A furrow creased his forehead, a bit of a frown pulled at the corners of his lips that sat agape. His brown eyes, which until now had been alive and intelligent, had glazed over as he stared into space.

All of this lasted for perhaps three seconds, before he tilted his head a bit and blinked.

"I'm not sure," he finished, rolling the shard between his fingers and sitting back in his chair. "Hmm. I could have sworn-Nevermind. Every culture has it's own lost city, some long forgotten paradise. A Shangri-La, a Brigadoon, an Aval-Is Avalon real?"

Violet was a bit confused by what just happened, but was pleased she could answer a question instead of asking them. "Avalon is a magical realm. Few people have ever been there, but those that have live forever on its soil. I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you left though, some people thought that Merlin had departed there to retire. Well, those that thought his tree was just, you know, a tree."

"Merlin the wizard?" Mr. Gold arched a brow. "He's real too? Like, ah, pointy-hat-and-white-bearded Merlin?"

Henry snickered, nearly gluing his fingers to the mirror frame, though Violet wasn't sure why. Not that she'd seen Merlin herself, but she thought that was exactly what the greatest wizard to ever live would look like, with age comes wisdom, and all that...

"Not exactly," Henry shook his head, but before he could explain, his phone rang in his pocket. He stood up and went to the front to answer it, leaving Violet and his grandfather alone with a pile of broken crystal between them.

Violet looked at the man across from her. He looked a bit different with short gray hair, and light-colored clothing. His nose was still crooked and his eyes were still dark, but he didn't look as evil as Violet remembered...or imagined. He was maybe handsome, even, a bit of Henry in his features if Violet looked now.

"Where did you learn so much, Mr. Gold?" Violet asked after a few beats of silence in the backroom.

A wry little smile tugged at his lips and he sighed. "Can't _quite_ remember that. Fancy knowing all about ancient civilizations and philosophers, but not remembering how you learned it all? Though, just from looking around here, I suppose I'm a reader. Lots of books back here. I looked through a few last night to see if there was a catalogue of sorts. There's not, _but_ , if you do want to know how to turn someone into a toad, I have a spell for that."

Violet was sure that he could do that without a book. But all the same, she felt herself giggle because of the total seriousness of Mr. Gold's voice while a crooked grin and merry light danced across his features.

At least until Henry dashed into the back and snatched the mirror up, wet glue be damned.

"My mom is coming! Hide the crystals!" he ordered.

Gold grabbed the empty paper bag from Granny's and carefully swept all the loose crystals into it. Violet helped him, but kept her eye on Henry as he hid the mirror in what appeared to be a false-bottomed drawer in another work table.

"What's wrong? Is your mom angry?"

"Oh, it's not Regina I'm worried about." Henry shook his head, snatching the paper bag and stuffing it on a shelf. In plain sight, but completely innocuous. He was clever like that, like when he set his phone on a bus seat and distracted his mothers as part of Operation Mixtape.

"That's the brunette, right?" Gold asked, fiddling with his cane where he sat. "Is it the other one, um, Emma, then?"

"No, no it's Regina, just...she's not who I'm worried about, it's who's coming with her."

" _Who_?" Violet and Gold asked at the same time, both perplexed by Henry's reaction as he fell back into his seat, only to spring back up again and hover near Gold, biting his lip nervously as he eyed the front room.

"My mom, uh, _Regina_ , has a complicated family. She's got a sister, who's staying with us, uh, for awhile. And she's not...she's not exactly trustworthy," Henry seemed to be struggling for words. "I don't want her to know about the mirror. When she found out about the Black Fairy's wand, and that it could open magic portals, she tried to steal it for herself and almost won."

Violet recalled a redheaded woman with wide blue eyes and lots of white teeth when they were in New York. She seemed a bit off, and all Violet really knew about her was that she was a witch and few people in town trusted her. But Henry spoke about Zelena and looked directly at Gold like he should know something, (Violet was going to have to pepper Henry with questions of her own later,) and none of it seemed to be good things.

Gold just nodded after a beat. "It's a secret, then."

Then the bell rang...

* * *

Hyde kicked the pile of odd dust in the mayor's office, scattering it across the floor. He honestly wasn't sure what left such a mess in this spot but clearly Regina was a sloppy housekeeper. Or perhaps she had a sloppy housekeeper. Meh, it hardly mattered to him.

Poking around in her desk drawers revealed nothing too interesting. There was a framed picture of her Majesty, a young teen boy with a striped scarf, and an unfamiliar man with light hair and blue eyes, and a small boy with a mop of dark curls and deep brown eyes. The man was probably Robin Hood. Quite dead.

One less hero to remove from the problem.

Hyde was not as patient or calm or clever as Jekyll. But he didn't need to be. Instead of patience, he had persistence. Instead of calm, he had force. Instead of clever, he was cunning. And the cunning fox outwitted the clever farmer, everytime, when they wanted into a henhouse bad enough.

There was nothing really in Regina's office but boring municipal things. No magic or secret spellbooks. Hmm...where did she keep those things? The Dark One only answered to things he was asked directly, and now Hyde regretted not asking more thoroughly. However, there were a few records that could prove useful.

Blueprints, tax records, the boring municipal things that might be helpful in breaking into the proverbial henhouse. Yes, those would do nicely.

Most of Hyde's forces were camping out in Rumpelstiltskin's pink mansion. (Why was it _pink_?!) It was on the edge of town, as would be expected of the Dark One, and no one ever went up there. Hyde had come to town to meet with the Heroes and get them anxious about his plans, which, if the nervousness in the streets was any indicator, had been a successful venture. He'd head back with a few of these blueprints and they could start planning their first real move...

Getting rid of the Heroes.

* * *

Robin started whimpering as soon as they stepped into the shop. Zelena couldn't blame her daughter; It was a dusty, gloomy cave, fitting for that ugly little imp. The witch tried that bouncing trick that Regina had done to calm her daughter down but it didn't seem to be working.

Henry stepped out the backroom, glancing between his mother and her. The boy couldn't look more suspicious if he had **GUILTY** stamped across his forehead under that mop of hair.

"We need to talk to Gold, Henry," Regina said. " _And_ , what gave you the idea to go running off this morning by yourself?"

Henry shifted. "Well...with the wailing baby in the house I wasn't exactly sleeping."

Zelena gave a slight tilt of the head in agreement. Her sweet pea had a very strong set of lungs. And a disagreeable attitude. Perhaps she was just cranky because of all the fuss these past few days?

Regina sighed, not quite as convinced. "Well it's dangerous with Hyde running around out there, you should have told someone where you were going. Me, or Emma, or David, even the pirate, okay? Is Gold in the back?"

"Yes ma'am?" a familiar voice called.

Regina made her way into the back and Zelena trailed behind her. She didn't miss the look Henry gave her, though she didn't care either. The boy had a grudge against her for something, Regina probably didn't tell him about Cora and everything else yet. Her sister did have this habit of keeping the boy out of the loop. He'd come around, surely. He accepted the pirate and his Dark One Grandpa, surely there was room in his heart for the Wicked Witch of the West?

But Zelena stopped short when she saw Gold. He looked old and fat, two things she hadn't associated with Rumpelstitlskin. His face was a little rounder and he had a tummy under his vest, not a stitch of black or leather on his person, and short-cropped gray hair and a silver shade of stubble dusting his cheeks.

"What the hell happened to you?" she blurted out, aware that her upper lip might've curled up in disdain.

There was that _look_ again, as Henry slid around her to stand by Gold and his girlfriend. Regina gave her one too (so _that_ was where Henry got it from,) so maybe she was being a little rude.

Gold sighed somewhat wearily and traced wood grain patterns on the table. "I don't remember," he said, sounding very tired. "So please forgive me for not answering all your questions."

Zelena studied him from head to toe (as much as she could with him sitting down, at least,) for a minute. There was something more than physically off with him, she realized. It wasn't just the hair and the weight, (maybe she was just noticing the weight, he had seemed a little chubby in that New York hospital bed,) it was something in his eyes.

He'd had lizard eyes when he'd been training her. In this land where his curse didn't show, he had brown eyes. Rather lovely dark brown eyes, perhaps, but they were still... _magic_. Something in them was dark and ancient and powerful, and there was none of that present now. Gold's eyes were...lighter? Softer, definitely, less guarded and more open. She couldn't recall when he ever looked that way, even fragile and dying, so there was more to this blank dagger mystery than met the eye.

Regina had the dagger and she handed it back to Gold while Zelena was studying him. Personally, Zelena would have kept it because you couldn't trust the Dark One with their own dagger. Hell, Zelena had to thwart at least three of his attempts to steal it back from her when she'd had him prisoner, one of them when he kissed her.

Curiously, Gold only looked at the dagger in confusion and set it down like it was nothing. And maybe it was now, perhaps he'd found a way to cleave himself of its power?

Regina asked, "Do you remember anything more today?"

"No...no, not really," Gold shook his head. "Nothing useful at least."

"What does _that_ mean?" Zelena asked, trying to bounce-soothe Robin again. Her daughter was whimpering and squirming in the way that Zelena recognized as her winding up to scream.

Gold pressed his lips together. "There's something very important about water that I'm missing. Deep, dark water, where the blue light is? I don't know. It's like having these...these impressions, in my mind, and as soon as I try to reach for one it fades."

Water and blue lights. Hmm. Zelena didn't know much about water-based magic. Oz was rather land-locked, Zelena couldn't even swim. She glanced at Regina, who seemed similarly puzzled, but then looked...thoughtful?

"Actually-"

The bell jangled again and Emma and her pirate came bursting into the backroom. Robin started crying then and Zelena groaned.

"It's okay darling, it's okay, hush now! Shhh!"

While Zelena had her hands full, Emma seemed to realize Henry was there. "Kid, what are you doing here?"

"I met Regina here." Henry said, and the purple girl chirped, "I'm with him."

Ugh. Puppy love, it would never last.

Hook gave a thinly-veiled glare to Gold, who just looked at the crowd of people in utter confusion. The pirate then turned to Regina and said, "We have to take the Crocodile to the convent. The Blue Fairy said she'll help get to the bottom of this mystery."

Regina's brow creased. "The Blue Fairy?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Emma asked. "Gold won't tell us, Hyde was spotted in town, David said he's not the only stranger people have been seeing, and we need answers. Now."

Regina hesitated. That was a new one, usually Regina was one of the more decisive of the lot.

"What is she going to do?"

Hook didn't answer, but Emma said, "Regina, it's the only way we'll find out why he's here."

" _He_ is right _here_ , thank you," Gold spoke up for the first time, frowning a little. ( _That_ made him look more normal...) "What do you want me to do?"

"Come with us," Emma said, stepping forward. "We're going to find out what's going on in your head. You can trust the Blue Fairy, she's a good person."

"Don't do it." Henry said, shockingly, putting a hand on Gold's shoulder. "The Blue Fairy may be a good person, but she doesn't like you. You have a bad history together."

Gold looked to Henry, raising his eyebrows. "What did I do?"

"Well," Hook snorted. "What _didn't_ you do is more like it."

Regina glared at the pirate. Zelena watched her sister hesitate again, looking from the pirate and Emma to Gold and Henry for a few seconds.

"Maybe we could try..." she said slowly. "The Blue Fairy is sort of the master of light magic...if you want to try this, Gold, I don't think it could hurt."

Henry disagreed: "No-"

"Henry, lad," Gold turned in his seat. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm very tired of people talking over me like I'm a child, and I'm very tired of not knowning things I should. It this could help, I'm going to try it."

The boy seemed distraught over this idea, really pathetic in Zelena's opinion since, really, when has his grandfather ever done anything good for him?

"You can always come with me, just in case," Gold then offered, with a surprisingly kind smile

Henry hesitated a minute more, then nodded. Emma frowned, now, looking like she wanted to protest but decided against it at the last moment. "Okay, come on, I'll drive you there," she said, heading to the front of the shop.

The whole group followed behind, including Henry's little friend. Emma's hideous yellow car had a backseat just big enough to fit Gold, Henry, and _whatshername_ , the pirate riding in the passenger seat. Regina strapped Robin into her carseat in her own car while Zelena got settled, unwilling to take up their time fighting with all those buckles and snaps.

Emma had already started down the road by the time Regina started the engine, and she hesitated another moment, looking at Zelena.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me if I made Zelena self-centered and delusional enough? I don't want you to think she's very sympathetic here, because I really see her as looking down her nose at everyone who isn't doing something for her benefit.


	6. VI. The Convent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is on hold for now, due to lack of a plan and inspiration! Enjoy it before, during or after the premiere tonight!

The convent looked like what Gold imagined a castle looked like. Not a fairy-tale castle that the prince brought the princess home to, though. A scary, horrific castle where the vampires feasted on unsuspecting travelers they invited for dinner before devouring them at the table like children attack a plate of cookies. Oh good lord he was pretty damn terrified on the ride to this place, and then to actually see it?

If it weren't for the fact that the man with the hook had, well, _a hook_ , attached to his hand, and two good legs, Gold might've tried running.

That wouldn't be an option though.

Gold turned his attention to the young nun. She was a delicate-looking thing with deep brown eyes and little fly-away curls, a pretty white smile and hands almost as twitchy as his. Her name was Sister Astrid, she'd said, and she had looked over their group like she'd been hoping to see someone but hadn't mentioned it, so maybe someone was missing.

Hmm. Gold would have asked but between Hook and Emma flanking him, the mad-eyed redhead and Regina fussing over an equally fussy babe in a pink starry blanket, and how Henry looked like he was going to be ill...his nerves were shot.

And this was before they'd been sat in a waiting room of sorts, full of chairs and tables with a few religious pamplets and a bible or two lying around. Sister Astrid had darted away, leaving them to sit in silence.

Well, almost silence, as the babe had gone from fussing to whimpering, and something in Gold identified it as the sound of a child about to start all-out wailing.

Gold sat in one of four chairs along a wall, in a corner. To his right was Regina, on the last chair before there was a table with a dusty lamp in the actual corner, and on the other side of the table against the other corner wall was the Zelena woman and the baby. Across from them, like they were watching him, sat Hook and Emma, he with his arm around her, in a bench in the middle of the room. To Gold's left were Violet, and then Henry. Violet had picked up one of the bibles with a confused look, skimming over passages.

Traditionally, Gold recalled from some corner of his mind, the King Arthur books had all led up to the quest for the Holy Grail, a Christian relic. Another part of his mind labelled Camelot as a quasi-paganistic religion with elements of Christianity, the original grail reduced to an element in a story...

A story about...

_About..._

He lost his train of thought whent he baby began to shriek, just as he suspected.

Zelena groaned, bouncing the baby a bit too forcefully in an attempt to soothe it. "What on earth is wrong with you? Why do you keep crying! Are you hungry? Did you soil yourself again?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "You're too nervous, I told you," she scolded quietly. "Stop scaring the baby!"

"I'm _not_ scaring her!" the redhead snapped, her eyes frightening Gold. He pitied the babe if it was hers.

Reaching out, he asked, "May I?"

He was aware that everyone in the room looked at him like he'd asked, _"May I eat a fat snail?"_ But apparently desperation to put the child at ease won out over whatever feelings they had, because Zelena carefully passed the baby to Gold and he, with just as much care, brought it to his lap and started unwrapping her from the thick fleecy blanket.

The little girl's face was red even before she'd started wailing, and the waiting room and halls had been very warm. Once she was unbound, wearing just a little mint-green onesie with a fox's face embroidered on the front and tiny white socks, the babe began calming down immediately.

"There we are, is that what you were trying to say, little one?" he asked, tucking her into the crook of his arm and rocking just a little. "Aye, that's better. There you go."

He looked up to find the grown women staring at him like he'd performed a magic trick. Hook looked torn between curiousity and disgust, Henry smiled and Violet cooed, reaching over to let the baby sleepily latch onto her finger.

"How did you know that would make her stop crying?" she asked, making a bit of a silly face at the baby even as it rapidly fell asleep.

"It's stuffy in here, she was too hot in the blanket," Gold shrugged. He'd be cranky too if he was swaddled in fleece in a room that had to be at least seventy degrees and without airflow.

"I wish I had a camera," he'd heard Emma mumble. "No one'll belive this."

Zelena looked eager to reclaim her offspring, twitching in her seat. She fixed Gold with an odd look and smirked, (that was no smile, that was decidely smirking,) in a fashion that made him feel very nervous. The slight weight of the babe in his arms gave him something to focus on, so he tore his eyes from those mad blue ones to watch the sleeping child.

"Well, look at that. Maybe I should hire you on to be her nanny."

Something about that statement made Gold uneasy, and he was glad Regina huffed then.

"Don't start," the brunette said firmly, then turned to him. "Would you mind giving my sister back Robin, before I have to shut her up?"

"Oh you're no fun, sis."

"What did I _just_ say?"

Astrid reappeared through the second door in the room, with another slight woman behind her. This woman had dark hair and eyes, and delicate features...but rather than looking sweet like Astrid, they gave the new woman a distinctly cold and haughty sort of look. An air of superiority surrounded the woman and everyone stood up, prompting Gold to do the same. It seemed odd he'd know how to hold the baby securely with his left arm while leaning on his cane...

But he handed the child off to Regina when she reached for her, and he then turned his attention with a start to the new woman standing directly in front of him.

Her gaze made Gold feel like he was under a magnifying glass. And he suspected whatever she found wouldn't be adequate. Near him, Henry squirmed.

"Mr. Gold," the woman finally said, with a thin smile. "How do you do? I am Mother Superior."

"How...how do you do?" he asked, unsure if she wanted to shake hands or not. "Are you...the one that can help me with my memories?"

He really, really didn't like that smile. Worse than Zelena's smirk, if it was possible.

"I'm not sure what you were told, but I never said anything about your memories," she said, tilting her head back in a way that had her looking down her nose at him. "You're here so that we can discover the truth, Dark One."

Dark One again?

"Why does everyone keep calling me- _Ughh_!"

"NO!" Henry yelped, lunging forward as Mother Superior reached inside his chest and ripped out his beating heart.

* * *

Henry wasn't sure what he'd been expecting--but definitely not the Blue Fairy tearing out his grandfather's heart. That was anathema to everything everyone had ever said about Rheul Gorm, who was supposed to be kind and helpful, but was standing there with his heart in her hand, like a freshly picked daisy.

He felt the grip of magic holding him back, paralyzing his arms and legs. Regina was standing there looking as shocked as he and Astrid, which meant...

Emma had her hands stretched out, her off-white magic glittering around him. His mother, the Savior, was holding him back while the Blue Fairy stood there with an amensiac's heart in her hand, and this was a nightmare.

"Mom stop this! This isn't right!"

"Henry it's the only way we'll learn the truth," Emma insisted, almost pleaded. "You know Gold can't be trusted to tell us what really happened, he's done something to the dagger."

"Listen to your mother, lad," Hook agreed, and if Henry had the use of his arms and legs, he'd throw the damn bible at his stupid head. Maybe it would burst into flames on contact.

"Emma..." Regina warned.

The Blue Fairy, unperturbed, glanced over Rumpelstiltskin's heart. It was...red. Speckled with tiny bits of black and light glowing pink. Not the charred black that everyone associated the Dark One's heart with. Apparently Blue agreed because she frowned, then, the skin around her eyes tightening almost imperceptibly as she glared at Gold.

"What did you do to the dagger of the Dark One, how did you remove your name?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" he rasped, falling back into the chair with wide eyes.

"How did you cleave yourself from the dagger?" Blue demanded.

"What dagger?!"

"What did you do to Belle? Where is she?"

"Who the hell is Belle? What's going on?!"

Blue squeezed his heart and Gold's breath stuttered, pressing a hand over his empty chest. There was a coldness in Blue's eyes that frightened Henry, something vindictive and...dark. He knew in that moment that she would kill him and no one would disagree because she was the Blue Fairy, and he was only Rumpelstiltskin-

" _Stop it!_ "

" _ASTRID?!_ "

All hell broke loose when Astrid tackled Blue to the floor. Emma's grip slipped and Henry, too, fell to the floor as everyone went into motion at once. Hook sprang forwards to pry Astrid off of the head fairy, and Emma dove in to help him. Henry scrambled to his feet and saw Violet dart forward for the glowing heart on the floor, so he grabbed Gold's arm and pulled him to his feet. Regina just gaped in shock, and Zelena did the same, holding her daughter as they stood back and watched the chaos unfold.

Henry pulled Gold out the door they'd come through and Violet was right behind him. She tucked herself under Gold's other arm and they helped him run, Violet keeping a careful hold of the disembodied heart. In the room behind him, there was a yelp, and the slamming of a door.

If they wanted to chase Gold down, then there was nothing Henry could do to stop them. Not with both his mothers, Zelena, and Blue, and oh, yeah, right, they were in the middle of the freaking fairies home turf. This was just about the worst case scenario. _Crap!_ Why, why, why had he let his grandfather be led into this veritable slaughterhouse?

And then suddenly Astrid was sprinting alongside them.

"Come on, I know a shortcut outside!" she puffed, veering right down a hall.

Henry stopped, though, ordering them to go ahead as he dug his cellphone out. He threw it inside the nearest room-a broom closet of sorts, perfect,-and sprinted to catch up. If he predicted the situation correctly, if they escaped the convent, then Emma would try to track his cellphone. That could buy them some time...to...figure _something_ out.

When he caught up again, Astrid was opening a door that led out a side entrance into the gardens. Violet was still there, holding Gold's heart, and the man himself looked terrified.

"What just-What was that? Is-That's my heart?! How-"

"Henry, what's going on?" Violet asked, her voice quivering.

God, he had so much explaining to do...once _he_ understood what the hell just happened. "Let's just get out of here, alright?" he said as calmly as he could manage. "Come on, let's hurry."

They all scurried out and Astrid locked the door behind them. Henry weighed the odds between running for the cars outside the convent and making a break on foot, when Astrid brushed his shoulder and led him to the right.

"This way!" she urged, sprinting down the path. "I can get us out of here!"

Over the top of the tall hedges, Henry saw a roof of some kind and realized it was a garage. The nuns had two vans, one a battered boxy machine and the other a sedan style van, that were only used if they needed to transport supplies. Astrid sprinted for the closest one in the open garage bay, jumping into the drivers seat of the sedan. Henry fumbled with the rear passenger door, then shoved Violet and Gold inside before scrambling for the passengers seat while Astrid picked the key out of the cup holder and jammed it into the ignition.

With a rusty rumble, the van started up, and Astrid peeled out the garage so fast Henry braced one hand on the dashboard, fumbling for his buckle with another.

"Seatbelts! Seatbelts!" he called to the back as Astrid too a turn a bit sharply down the drive, smashing him against the car door.

He heard fumbling and clicking in the backseat as he fastened his own belt-just before they shot down the drive with an unlicensed fairy-nun at the wheel. At least Henry thought...

"Can you drive?" he asked, his voice an octave higher.

"Uh, I remember learning to drive? From the curse?" Astrid answered. "It's not so hard, I mean, turn left, turn right, right pedal is go and the stopper is on the left, right? I mean, _left_. Yeah, right."

"Bollocks!" Gold barked from the backseat, and Henry wasn't sure what that meant, but agreed.

Violet squeaked, hugging the heart close to her chest so it didn't go flying onto the floor. She didn't know how the whole...heart thing, worked, but it wouldn't do for her to drop the thing and have it pop like a bloody bubble. When Astrid gunned the van out the gates of the convent and veered to the right, all of her passengers prayed that the traffic in Storybrooke was nonexistent, for the common good of the other motorists.

"Does anyone know where we're headed now?" Violet asked.

"Uh..." Henry hesitated. Not Granny's, not Gold's shop so soon, or his house, and they definitely couldn't see Snow and Charming right now, Violet's dad would kill he and Gold-

"We should ditch the van somewhere," he stalled. "Emma used to hunt criminals for a living, we have to be careful right now." _'Some plan, Truest Believer.'_

"Outside the shop?" Gold suggested. "If your family is against me, I'd rather not risk them finding the crystals. That's my last chance at finding out what happened."

_'Thank you, Rumpelstiltskin.'_

"Okay, good plan...but where do we go from there? My, uh, my family kind of is the town government and law enforcement. They're pretty good at their job too."

Astrid chirped, "Tink might help."

"Tinkerbelle?" Henry blinked. He wasn't aware she was still in town...

"Yeah, she's got an apartment of her own. She couldn't stay at the convent because Blue tried to make her wear a habit and join the order, but Tink stormed out and said that if any of the girls wanted to get away, she'd help. I...um, I might talk to her sometimes 'cause Leroy and I are...talking."

"Leroy? Like...Leroy? Oh, right, Dreamy and Nova," Henry nodded, calming. "Okay, so...will Tink help us?"

Astrid thought for a moment, almost running off the road before jerking the tires back onto the pavement.

"If you tell her we're irritating the Blue Fairy and Captain Hook, I think she'll even give you a medal."


	7. VII. Getaway

Dopey was a tree still.

Part of Leroy figured that, given Mr. Hyde being in town, Snow and Charming had a lot on their plates. But it was irritating him because Dopey had been a tree for exactly twenty-eight days, and they didn't seem to remember that.

They also didn't say where Belle was...

Leroy preferred the company of his brothers. The Charmings were getting on his nerves lately, but he did have a few non-dwarf acquaintances. The giant Anton, "Tiny", who had a vegetable garden outside of town. Granny had a sharp bite but sometimes it was fun to argue with her, and she definitely knew how to cook. And then there was Belle, but it was almost impossible not to like Belle. She gave him good advice back when he was just Dreamy, and in Storybrooke, she kept nudging him to talk to Astrid until he finally did.

(He didn't regret that, even though it was hard to get in touch...almost like Blue kept hiding her.)

People didn't really let Belle into their social circles, though. She was kind and sweet and clever and a wonderful human all around, but she had the misfortune of coming with a five-foot-seven piece of baggage labelled "Dark One". Leroy knew Belle and Gold were on and off, depending on what the hell Gold had done now, but Belle was always happier when she was with her...husband?

Were they still married? She was dating that blockhead Will who drank almost more in a few weeks than Leroy had in twenty-eight years under the curse, (the man had a liver like a sponge,) but did that mean anything? She had said something over breakfast in the diner one day after everyone left to save Hook's ass about their being together again, and Will had vanished...somehow. And he really should've been paying more attention when he was crossing the street.

_SKRREEECH!_

"Holy f-Hey!" Leroy shouted, stumbling aside as the van swerved around him and wobbled down the alley behind the main street shops. "Watch it goddammit! Don't you know how to drive?"

Wait. Wasn't that the nun's sedan?

Leroy jogged down the alley to find the van stopped behind Gold's shop. Okay, now that was suspicious. The nuns didn't go any closer to Gold's than across the street at the library, or occasionally at Granny's. And then the doors flew open, and only one nun came out. Of the drivers seat. And paused to stare at him while everyone else scurried into the back of the shop.

A small, gray-haired man (still taller than Leroy...of course...) who Leroy couldn't recognize stopped by Astrid and said something, peeking back at Leroy, but she shooed him into the shop so that they were alone, and she hurried towards him.

It was hard to care that she almost hit him when Astrid reached him and blushed, running her hands over his arms and fussing. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry Leroy, I didn't see you there! I should've kept my eyes on the road, I didn't hit you did I? I have cursed memories of driving but I've never actually done it before, oh, dear, are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah, wasn't _that_ close, you know," Leroy cleared his throat, catching her nervous hands. Her thumbs still brushed over the rough skin on his own hands, which felt pleasant, and what was he going to say again? Oh. "Why are you driving a van?"

"Um... _wellllll_..." Astrid pressed her lips together. "I think I'm leaving the convent a little sooner than I thought I was. I sort of...tackled Blue to the floor. And kicked Captain Hook. Between his legs. And ran away. And now I'm the getaway driver, I think?"

Huh.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't...that.

"For...who? Who got away?"

"Oh Leroy," Astrid took a deep breath. "It was awful! They brought in Mr. Gold, but he doesn't remember anything, and he's kind of harmless and quiet now. Hook said they had an appointment with Blue so I brought her back and she got all cold and she ripped his heart out!"

"Can she do that?" Wasn't heart-ripping for the likes of Cora and Regina and, uh, Gold? Not fairies?

"Apparently! And she tried to make Mr. Gold confess he was the Dark One, only he isn't anymore, he's got a healthy pink heart it's so weird. But then she kept squeezing and squeezing and Emma wouldn't let Henry stop her and I just-I tackled her Leroy!" Astrid sounded a little giddy, and a little shocked, all at once. "I knocked her right to the ground and I hit Captain Hook between the legs when he tried to stop me from running, and then we all ran and I used the van to drive away and then I almost hit you and now I can't stop rambling about so I should probably stop now."

"Okay...so Gold was in the van? Right? And Henry?"

"Oh, yes, that's right," she nodded, another curl slipping free until she tucked it back into place. "And, um, what's her name? Henry's friend? Lavender? No! Violet. _Oh!_ Oh, you can't tell Snow White and Charming about this Leroy, please!"

Leroy hesitated. On the one hand, there was Gold. _Rumpelstiltskin._ On the other...that sounds a lot like something Blue would do. And if Hook and Emma were in on it, then yes, Snow and Charming would side with them over anyone else...

"Okay," he nodded. Snow knew he had a lost love of sorts, but she didn't know it was Astrid. There was nothing connecting him to this equivalent of a jailbreak. "I won't say anything. But what are you going to do now? Do you have a place to stay, or..."

Oh god, what was he offering? His crappy one-bedroom apartment was barely fit for him. There was the couch he'd had since the first curse struck, circa 1983, which had some bad springs that could stab you in painful places if you weren't careful. If it was just Astrid, he'd sleep there, but Leroy couldn't quite see his generosity extending to Gold, no matter how helpless.

"I'm going to take them to Tink," Astrid said. "They have something they're working on to help Gold regain his memories and find Belle. And someone has to put his heart back in."

"Good. Good-What was that about his heart?"

The new kid, Violet, came out hugging a vase tightly against her chest, like she was terrified of dropping it. There was an odd pink glow emitting from inside, lighting her face with even odder rosy shadows. Was Gold's heart in there? _Holy crap_...that expression made sense on her young face now.

"Sister Astrid? Can you come here a moment?"

"Okay, I'm coming," Astrid nodded, turning back to Leroy. "I have to go. Uh, can...can I call you?"

The convent only had one phone, in Blue's office. Another reason it was so difficult for Leroy to contact Astrid, not that he ever called her. Wait, did the phone at his place even work? Screw it. He'd find out later.

"Sure," he nodded, feeling a smile spread across his face-and then an idea pop up in his mind. "Hey, I've got an idea, stay here until I get back."

Astrid nodded, looking a little confused now, but still smiling as she hurried inside the pawnshop and Leroy turned to hurry out the alley. If he was quick, he could track down which one of his brothers had their van. It was probably Happy at his electronics store two blocks away, he liked using it to take faulty items back to their owners. Or maybe Sneezy at the pharmacy? It didn't matter. Worse comes to worse, he could always "borrow" Doc's Miata...

* * *

Henry was gone.

Emma tried the GPS device she installed in his phone, but apparently the days of that trick working were long over. They found the phone in a closet down the hall. Regina supposed they could be prouder of Henry's ingenuity if he would stop outwitting them to run harem-scarem all over the place. A quick search of the convent itself, the Blue Fairy having all-nuns-on-deck inside, turned up nothing. Zelena had gone to take Robin outside because she hadn't calmed down since all hell broke loose, and said that both the cars were there, but there were funny tiremarks in the driveway.

Blue turned an interesting color and marched out a side door they'd neglected. It led into the garden...and then Blue marched them down to the garage where the two convent vehicles were kept. Only one was there. That interesting color veered towards purple until the head fairy took a deep breath and said, "I believe they've left the grounds."

"You have to hand it to the lad," Hook huffed, shifting on his feet. Likely smarting from _where_ Astrid kicked him. "He can certainly plan a quick escape."

"Let's just hope Astrid is driving," Emma said, looking torn between angry and fretful. "Last time Henry drove he took out a good bit of main street."

Regina nodded, but said nothing.

When Emma and Hook came in to the pawnshop talking about taking Gold to see the Blue Fairy, Regina knew that logically it was a bad idea. But logically, it was _also_ a good idea because of Gold's spotty record with honesty. But then again, the Blue Fairy always had a very selfish agenda. But there was also the fact that they really didn't have a lot of leads...

Regina was not indecisive. She was usually the one to come up with ideas, even if they were shot down. Or the one shooting down ideas because they were stupid, impractical, what have you. But in the shop...she couldn't. They needed to know what happened, if Gold was telling the truth or not, but going to the pompous jellyfish was always a bad idea unless you wanted to hurt Gold. But Regina couldn't make up her mind on what was right. So...she did what Emma and Hook suggested, because Emma usually did the right thing.

Except where the pirate was concerned...and clearly he was here. Somehow.

But Regina had been of no help, either, when that one nun-April? No, _Astrid_ ,-tackled Blue and all hell broke loose. She should have intervened when Emma paralyzed Henry, or better yet, when Miss Goody-Two-Wings ripped out Gold's heart. _Fairies didn't do that_. It erred on the side of darker, vengeful magic. It was just the sort of thing Regina was afraid of, and yet, she'd said nothing.

That wasn't...her. Her problem had always been being overreactive...not...passive. She should have done something, why didn't she?

She took Emma by the arm and pulled her aside, sending a glare to Hook when he tried to follow, and he took the hint. In relative privacy in the convent gardens, Regina crossed her arms and looked across at her co-parent.

"What are we going to do about Henry?" she asked.

Emma seemed to know exactly what she meant, though not liking it either. "I don't know. He...I think he means well, but this is Gold we're talking about. Why would he go through this trouble for him?"

"Well...Gold is his grandfather. And he did foil his plans to help Belle. Maybe he feels guilty, but what are we going to do? Ground him? Haul Gold in to jail?"

"If he really isn't the Dark One anymore, then I guess...I guess he really is harmless," Emma hesitated. "No magic, no memory. There's nothing we can do for him, is there?"

Regina shrugged, not really knowing the answer, and Emma rolled her eyes.

"God, why is it that there's a hundred different ways to remove someone's memories, and never any solutions to restore it?" she huffed. "Okay, fine. Let's just...track Henry down before he does anything stupid, like, I don't know, running off to Portland this time."

"Don't jinx us like that, please."

* * *

Henry had said the shop was his, but Gold wasn't sure why he had so many magical objects and things in the back. Apparently he was a very wealthy citizen in Storybrooke. And a dangerous man. A powerful one.

He didn't feel very powerful, leaning heavily on his cane, his ankle dully throbbing from the running aroung in the convent. The only clothes he had were the ones he was wearing, until Henry unearthed a black three-piece suit tucked away in a wardrobe. They were just his size, though rather...dour. The jacket, the vest, the pants, the tie, all a cheerful shade of inky black. The shirt was so dark a blue it might as well be black too. Apparently he had something against color. But they were clean at least.

Speaking of the lad, Henry was going around and picking up books and stacking them on a counter. For her part, Violet had found a conical porcelain vase that flared out at the rim, painted deep blue with bright flowers. She put his still-beating heart in there, and stood out the way, holding the vase like it was going to go off if she jostled it wrong.

Gold could sympathize and offered to take it, but she and he both looked at the one hand that always had to be on his cane and mututally decided that would be a bad idea.

Astrid came in after talking with the short, bearded man she'd said was "a friend", and helped Henry thumb through a set of books he added to the stack. Magic books. He was a sorcerer of some kind then? A bad one? Was that why everyone they met treated him like a leper with a loaded gun?

He wasn't sure what to do, really. Henry had about six thick books with leather covers stacked up, in addition to the mirror and the paper bag of loose crystals, and Gold's clothes zipped up in a garment bag he was holding. Did the boy expect them to carry it all to wherever this Tinkerbelle lived? Astrid said she lived in an "apartment down on the waterfront". Gold had yet to see any water so that made him think that would be a long walk. With his bad foot and Violet looking like she wouldn't breathe until the heart was back in his chest, it seemed like they should run the risk of taking the van...

The risk of Astrid driving the van, that is.

"Leroy asked me to wait for him," Astrid said when he broached the subject. "I think he has an idea."

Henry hesitated, moving some of the books into his omnipresent backpack. "Leroy wants to help?"

"I think so. He said he would."

Henry didn't look convinced, and Violet asked, "Isn't he that grumpy guy that hangs around Granny's a lot?"

"Yeah, that's him. He's Grumpy."

"He's not that bad," Astrid protested. "I think he's sweet-Oh, wait, capital or lowercase G? Which one are we talking about?"

God, Gold sighed, leaning on his good leg. He needed to get his memories back, just so he could know what the hell was going on in this mad place.

Violet took up a position by the door, keeping a look out. By the time Henry decided that they had everything they needed, she peered forward at the mouth of the back alley and said, "Do you know anyone in a box-shaped car Henry?"

"What?"

"There's a big car backing in, with a big round circle on the back-Somebody's getting out, wait a minute."

Gold limped out the door and stood with the girl on the doorstep while Leroy climbed out of a large van with a tire cover on the back, and started walking towards them. As he got closer, Gold realized that the man was shorter than he was. He had a knit cap with a brim, a salt-and-pepper beard, blue eyes, and lines that made Gold suspect he spent a lot of time scowling. Not that he would _say_ that, because Leroy was also very stocky looking, with big rough hands and broad shoulders.

For some reason, Gold had an image of a short, heavyset man in a bulky dark coat in his mind for a split second, but then Astrid wiggled by him and scurried up to Leroy. The stern look on the man's face softened as soon as he caught sight of the girl and if they weren't in love, then Gold was a newt.

"I thought you'd need a ride," Leroy said, and Astrid jumped him with a hug and a giggle.

"That's brilliant Leroy! Thank you so much!"

"Ah, s'not a problem," he awkwardly put his arms around her, like he wasn't sure where to touch. "Happy to help."

With transportation, Henry grabbed three more books and after a moment of rummaging, he picked up a dreamcatcher and tucked it into his backpack. (Leroy looked at Gold a few times, highly suspicious, but seemed to give up after a while.) Once everything was loaded into the back of the van, they climbed in. No one tried to take the front passenger seat from Astrid, and as long as she wasn't driving, Gold wouldn't complain about where he sat.

The ride was much smoother through town now. Astrid gave directions until Leroy pulled them up to an apartment. The salty ocean smell was strong here, and Gold could almost see the bay from here. There were certainly more seagulls at least, perched on roofs and flying overhead. Gold took up the garment bag again and Leroy, Astrid, and Henry gathered up the books.

"Your friend can put Mr. Gold's heart back, right?" Violet asked, still toting the vase around and starting to look like it was wearing her down.

"Can't you do that?" Leroy asked Astrid, as she led them up to the third of five floors. "Just, I dunno, pop it back in?"

"I can't do that! I'll probably drop it," Astrid blanched. "I mean, I slipped mopping the floors by myself."

"I think you could do it."

Astrid regained her color, and then some, at her "friend's" vote of confidence. But by then they'd stopped in front of a door and she knocked, and a woman with curly blonde hair tied up stuck her head out.

"Astrid? What are...oh my god is that Gold?" she opened the door wider, staring at him in a way that was becoming increasingly familiar. "What happened to your hair?"

"My hair?"

"Uh, it's a complicated situation," Henry interrupted. "Can we come in?"

"Can you please put this back?" Violet begged, holding out the vase.

Tinkerbelle took one peek inside the vase, and another glance at them, and let them in.

"This is going to be a good story, I can tell."


	8. VIII. A Step in the Right Direction

The Dark One who wasn't the Dark One, his grandson, a dwarf, a fairy-nun refugee, and a girl with a heart in a vase showed up at Tink's apartment door at three-thirty in the afternoon.

And it only got stranger from there.

Once Zelena was defeated, (the first time,) Tink had largely drifted away from the main action in Storybrooke. Considering the Snow Queen crap happened right after that, it was just a wake-up call that the town heroes would be neck-deep in drama every week.

Once in a while she managed to chat with Regina. Once in a while, too, she babysat Roland when the Merry Men were all off being... _merry_ , or whatever the hell they get up to. He was a sweet kid, she was sorry to see him go right after losing his father to Zelena's boyfriend, (there was a tangle of peoples best cut out,) but considering his father's rapist was now an honorable citizen according to Regina, it was definitely for the best.

Obviously Tinkerbelle had missed more than she'd thought by staying out of the loop and starting a menial life.

She'd chosen the apartment near the docks because she missed the ocean sounds from Neverland, the salt in the air. That was all she missed, rest assured, but also, it was quiet on this end of Storybrooke. _"Normal."_   The most interesting thing to happen in Tink's life was when Happy and Bashful got up to a drinking contest down at The Rabbit Hole. (Bashful must've had a hollow leg, that dwarf could hold liquor like nobody's business.) Oh, and that Dark One thing that swept through town and marked everyone not holed up in the convent or was a baby.

She fully intended to keep it that way, then the world's strangest posse showed up on her doorstep and clearly this was a story she had to hear.

"So," Tink cupped her chin in her hand. "You, Gold, don't remember anything before your arrival in Storybrooke. And you, Henry and Violet, are trying to help him regain his memories so you can find out what happened to Mrs. Gold. And you, Astrid, helped them escape the convent when the heroes set Gold up for slaughter at the hands of the Blue Fairy heedless of her history with him, and assaulted Hook when he tried to stop you. And you, Leroy, drove them all here from Gold's shop, hoping I could help or hide you. Is that all right?"

Tink was the only one standing, in the middle of the room, eyeing the five people in her living room spread out on her furniture. Violet, Henry, and Gold sitting on her sofa, the vase with his heart was on the coffee table, pulsing steadily. Leroy sat in her big, ugly armchair, and Astrid was perched on the arm of the chair playing with her fingers. They all looked amongst each other for a minute.

"More or less," Gold nodded.

"I stole a van," Astrid added.

"Will you help us?" Henry asked. "I mean, all we expect from you really is to just put Gold's heart back in. We can find somewhere else to hide."

"You can stay here until you figure something out, don't worry," she waved her hand, then approached the vase on the table. Gold's heart was a shockingly healthy color, red with a balance of dark spots and glowing pink ones that denoted a moral grayity. Neither good, nor evil. "Alright, sit still Mr. Gold. This might feel a bit weird."

Gold stayed very still, though not comfortable. His eyes widened and his mouth pinched closed, and Henry and Violet both watched her like a hawk as Tink brace a hand on his shoulder and lined up the heart.

_**Shunk!** _

It popped back in easily and Gold gave a little raspy wheeze, immediately, patting the center of his chest to feel his heartbeat. Tink had never ripped out a heart before but putting one back was child's play. Still, good to know she hadn't screwed it up. She'd never put one in either, until now.

Not that anyone in the room need know that...

"Oh thank the gods," Violet sighed, slumping in her seat. If it was possible, Tink thought she was more relieved than Gold to have the damn thing back in.

"Th-thank you, miss," Gold stammered through the shock. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," she smiled. Okay. This was weird, the Dark One thanking her. Although...he wasn't the Dark One anymore, if the dagger was blank, and his heart was so healthy-looking.

Leroy stood up then, looking just as weirded out as Tink felt. "Okay, so, uh, I guess I'll be headed out now. Good luck with... _this_ , kid."

Henry nodded. "Thanks for the help Leroy."

"Yeah, sure," he sent another suspicious look at Gold. "Sure."

Astrid followed him to the door, and Tink resisted the urge to snicker. The pair of them had about as much grace in love as two wobbly-legged puppies. Or perhaps more accurately, teenagers with their first loves.

She turned her attention back to Henry, who was digging something out of his backpack. A...dreamcatcher?

"There's just one more favor I'd like to ask for," Henry said, holding out the object. "Do you know how to work one of these?"

* * *

Astrid had closed the apartment door to give her and Leroy a bit of privacy. Well, as much privacy as a public hallway would allow.

"Thanks for all your help, really," she beamed, reaching automatically for his hands. "You didn't have to do that."

Leroy cleared his throat, taking a peculiar interest in the pattern of the carpeted floor. "Yeah, well, you needed help. No problem at all. I just gotta bring the van back to Happy, so...um...you said you wanted to call me sometime?"

Did she? Oh! Yes she did! She did! Only she didn't know what Tinkerbelle's phone number was here.

Luckily for her, Leroy was smart. He dug a Sharpie pen out his back pocket and gently turned her hand so that her palm faced up. Even though his hands were big, rougher, and stronger than Astrid's doll-like hands, he was always so careful that she found it very sweet. He scrawled out a number across her palm and Astrid made a note to write it down before she did something stupid like washed her hands.

"There, uh, that's me. I mean my number. You can tell me the number here when you call me tomorrow. Or tonight. O-or whenever, you know."

"I will, um, tonight?"

"Tonight. Okay. Good."

Astrid looked up from their hands to find Leroy peeking at her. Her face felt as hot as his was turning pink. Well, there was nothing for it then. She simply had to lean forwards, which she did, and kiss his bearded cheek.

"Tonight," she grinned.

"Y-yeah..." he nodded meekly, then a wide Dreamy-esque smile spreading across his face. "Tonight."

He went off and Astrid went back into the apartment feeling like she was flying without wings. She had a phone-call-date! Well, a date to make a phone call. Did it count as a real date? Did it matter? No, it didn't matter, she decided. It didn't matter at all. Because she had a date. Now all she needed was to not babble like an idiot, and get the apartment's number from Tinkerbelle.

When she came back to earth and saw Tink holding a dreamcatcher, Astrid paused.

It was a small dreamcatcher, just a bit larger than a teacup saucer. The ring was made of pale wood, with a white string center wet with a few pale-colored and black beads, which matched the ones hanging on the ends of the feathery-tassly...thingies, on the bottom. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. For a dreamcatcher. But a little memory bubbled up at the back of Astrid's mind about a special power dreamcatchers had with a bit of magic applied, how they could capture your memories and display them.

Oh! That was perfect!

Tink seemed to be thinking the same thing, contemplating the dreamcatcher in her hands.

"I'm not sure this will work," she warned Gold, who was sitting there looking hesitant. Rightfully so, since the last time someone offered to help, his heart was torn out. "If _you_ can't remember anything then it's likely _I_ won't find anything, either."

"Well..." he drummed his fingertips against his knees. "As long as you don't tear my brain out of my skull, I'll hardly be worse off than I am now."

"Please don't do that, please?" Violet half-begged, look nauseous. "I had to carry his heart out the convent, while Astrid was driving, and then in a vase until we got here. I really don't want to touch a human brain."

Henry reached over and squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, that's not how a dreamcatcher works. And if I'm wrong, I'll handle the brain, don't worry."

Gold gave him a frosty look that made him appear more like the infamous Mr. Gold than before. "Well I'm glad you find humor in that scenario."

Tink ignored them. She took hold of the dreamcatcher between her thumb and forefinger, not touching the string woven in the center. She pointed it towards Gold and knit her brows in concentration, until a golden spark bloomed from the center of the web and rippled into a glowing pool. For a long moment it was all perfectly smooth and blank. A very long moment. Long enough that the tension in the room and fear that it wouldn't work was nearly tangible enough to taste.

But then...

In a golden-hued image, wearing the famous dour black suit and his hair long, stood Mr. Gold, holding a box. Astrid's breath caught, because it wasn't a box, it was the most famous box in magical lore: Pandora's Box. She thought perhaps he was unleashing one of great evils contained within the box, at first, because...well that's what the Dark One did. Right? Only he activated it, and instead, Belle appeared lying on a soft-looking couch. A tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed man in dark robes appeared beside Rumpelstiltskin, eyeing Belle curiously.

_"She really put herself under a sleeping curse? Well how stupid. That wouldn't protect a baby from anyone, she's cursed, the child isn't. It's still growing inside of her even as we speak, she has...oh, something close to forty weeks to go, doesn't she? Then the babe will be born whether she likes it or not."_

_"I am aware," Rumpelstiltskin said stiffly. "Now will you wake her or not?"_

_"Well I could. Or you could just take her home and see what happens. More than once a cursed woman with child has woken screaming in the throes of childbirth. I'm not sure whether it's the pain or the True Love a parent has for their child-_

_"I have no intentions of leaving my wife under this curse," the Dark One ground out. "Now will you wake her or will I have to find another way?"_

_The mysterious man snickered. "Always so impatient, you. Alright, alright. I can wake your wife, but as you're so fond of say-"_

_"Yes, all magic comes with a price. Now tell me yours, Morpheus."_

Morpheus? As in...God of Dreams, that Morpheus? Well, Astrid had to admit, when Rumpelstiltskin had a problem he did not do things in halves.

_The man himself, Morpheus, folded his hands behind his back. "Very well, straight to business then. You're no fun at all. See, there is a bauble I'm very interested in. Well more of a trophy, I suppose. The Unbreaking Heart. You'll find it through this door-" he snapped his fingers and a portal of swirling green light appeared, "-if you just search long enough. Powerful relic, just the sort of thing you're interested in. **Power**. Bring it back to me, and I will wake up your little Belle."_

_"Is that all?" Rumpelstiltskin asked, sliding his gaze from the portal to Morpheus. "Just like that?"_

_"Oh yes, yes indeed. No time limits, except the reasonable one of your return before the child is born, of course."_

_Rumpelstiltskin glanced one last time at Belle._

_"Deal."_

Tink cut the memory off there and blinked, clearly not believing that it actually worked. That was how Astrid, felt, too. All eyes turned to Gold, who sat there in stunned silence, staring at the once-again ordinary dreamcatcher.

"That...that was _me_?" he asked, looking at Henry. "I have a wife? And a child?"

Henry swallowed. "Y-yeah, that was Belle. I, uh, I don't know much else. Sorry. I, um, we were in the Underworld, last time I saw her. We didn't...know she was pregnant at the time, until later. You saved her, though, before we left. And then...you lost her. But I promise, I'll help you find her and the baby again."

Gold nodded distractedly.

"I have a wife and a child..." his brown eyes widened in horror. "And they were going to let that woman kill me!"

Astrid felt a chill run down her spine. The Blue Fairy was supposed to be the epitome of light. The greatest force of good in the entire forest. And yet...she had been one squeeze away from murdering a husband and father. Even if he was the Dark One, (at one time?) that was...not light or good. That was terrible. And that the heroes were allowing it...

"What should we do now?" she asked, sounding more sure than she really felt.

Everyone looked to her and Astrid wished she'd stayed quiet.

"We should probably, um," Henry dug the mirror frame he'd been so insistent about bringing out of his bag and placed it on the coffee table, followed by a tube of glue. "We should probably get back to working on this thing."

Gold eyed the dreamcatcher in Tink's hand. "What about my memories. Should we-"

"I think we should work on that later," Tink said firmly. "No offense at all, but you do not have a very clean record. I don't know what we're going to find if we start digging through your mind, so let's focus on getting this portal fixed."

"A portal?" Astrid repeated, looking at the mirror. It was just a round mirror, with raw blue crystals around it like they'd grown on the glass.

Tink, however, looked at her like she'd asked if grass was green. "Yeah, it's a portal. You don't think crystals grow on mirrors like that, do you? Those are some kind of special crystals, I'm not sure how special, but it's a portal of some kind."

Henry pointed towards the stack of books they'd brought with them. "How about you and Astrid go through those books and see what you turn up, while we work on gluing the crystals back together?"

"You're just going to repair a magic portal that runs off the power of magic crystals with glue?"

"It's Krazy Glue, y'know. Crazy strong."

Tink rolled her eyes and pulled Astrid by the arm. "I'm going to need a drink, c'mon, help me out in the kitchen Astrid."

Obediently following behind, Astrid wound up helping Tink make a pot of tea in the kitchen. SIlently, it was agreed that Tink would handle the coffee mugs she used as teacups while Astrid filled the unbreakable kettle instead and let it boil.

The sink reminded Astrid that she had Leroy's phone number written on her hand, and she started poking around for a pen or pencil and a scrap of paper. Tink didn't notice until Astrid was jotting it down on a paper napkin, and the blonde fairy grinned widely.

"Oh my god, is that his phone number?"

"What?"

Tink snatched Astrid's hand and looked at the black ink on her palm. "It is! Oh look at you two, trading phone numbers! You move fast, Astrid," she winked, giving her a little nudge with her elbow.

"N-no! No! We're just, y'know, _talking_ ," Astrid fidgeted, wrinkling the napkin in her wringing hands before thinking better of it. "Um, what number would I give him to call, here? Not that-"

Tink laughed and suddenly she was hugging Astrid. It was nice, if a little embarrassing. Well...why couldn't a fairy and a dwarf trade phone numbers, anyway? If the Dark One could deal with a dream god to wake his pregnant wife, and even as an amnesiac, still want to find and save his family, then why couldn't she and Leroy be happy together?

* * *

The group Hyde had brought over from the Land of Untold stories was a varied one. Some had come under the full knowledge they were taking over the town of fairytales as their new home, others had less of a choice and less options available, some were apathetic and just seeking an adventure, and Don Quixote was...well, no one was entirely sure why Hyde had brought him along. But if they needed a scapegoat, kamikaze, or human sacrifice, they had one.

The pink mansion on the end of town was almost entirely isolated, which meant nobody really suspected that they were living there. The Dark One's closest neighbors had moved when the first curse broke, not wanting to be near him. It was a wonder, really, with such a meek and fickle populace, why Rumpelstiltskin hadn't taken over the town already, Hyde thought.

He had assembled everyone in the living room, mentally checking to be sure they were all present. Someone was keeping an eye on Don Quitoxe to make sure he didn't hop up and making a speech about the monsters they were about to vanquish, someone else was making sure that Morgan le Faye didn't burn the same man to a crisp because for some reason Quitoxe imagined her a damsel in distress and kept pulling her behind him. All other parties were perfectly in order.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Hyde began, clasping his hands behind his back. "I would like to thank you all for joining me in my quest to this new land. This is the only town in this world that has magic, and through it, we can find ourselves a new home and finish our stories the way we intend them to be written. While he isn't present, I think we can all agree that the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin, is largely to thank for handing us the keys to the kingdom, and for so generously leaving behind our new base of operations. Wouldn't you agree?"

A few chuckles and a round of applause greeted him. Hyde smirked, but he _hadn't_ noticed one man in particular's reaction to the name Rumpelstiltskin.

"So, without further pleasantries, I shall explain the first step towards our goal. It is imperitive that we keep five people thoroughly distracted. The most important two being Emma Swan, the Savior, and Regina Mills, the mayor. Some of you may recall her as The Evil Queen. It should be very easy to deal with them, they've the most to prove by running about and saving everyone. Snow White and her prince must also be dealt with, and the Savior's lover Killian Jones, Captain Hook, must be attended to as well. Which is why you're here, Captain."

A broad-shoulder man sitting in an armchair glanced coolly at the smattering of applause given to him. He had darkly tan skin, thick black hair and a trimmed black beard and mustache, and wore a long, fitted navy blue coat with smart brass buttons and tall black boots. The only sailing man among them, who claimed no nation or kingdom as his own.

Hyde continued to detail why it was so important to distract these people, the town's heroes, but the captain had stopped listening.

Rumpelstiltskin.

Rumpelstiltskin had been the owner of this house?

The captain was one of the newer recruits to Hyde's party. He had come and gone through the Land of Untold stories before, but was recruited on the promise of finishing some long overdue business with a certain pirate. Hyde was very careful to stroke his ego and handle him with caution, because even though he was but a mortal man, he was by far the most unpredictable.

And there was little in the way of keeping Captain Nemo in this town, or realm, should he chose to leave.

However... _Rumpelstiltskin_...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have decided that this story will be picking, choosing, and screwing with S6 canon as I see fit. I forgot Captain Nemo was supposed to appear this season, so whatever I path I've chosen for him likely won't fit with the show's version. Also: In this story, Morpheus is not the Rumbaby, he really is a god, to be clear. I planned his part ahead of schedule.
> 
> Personally I think canon!Morpheus would make a tall-but-perfect-faced Rumbelle offspring, but the presentation leaves me wanting. _"He'll ruin our family like he did his last," he says, while his father is literally doing everything in his power just to wake Belle up and get make sure his unborn cluster-of-cells is safe._ See? That's what I have a problem with; Presentation. *deep breath* Updates of The Unresolved and A Brave New World to follow tomorrow!


	9. IX. The Visitors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nemo's whole chapter was written juuuusssst before last week's episode premiered. He is not affiliated with OUAT's interpretation in anything but name and Nautilus.
> 
> I've also made the executive decision to cut Liam 2 completely out. I don't like Hook, but even I have to admit the whole murder-our-father-and-orphan-the-brother is a bit too soap operatic for my taste. He never existed. Poof!

David had come home to the loft for dinner after an afternoon of canvassing the forest for Hyde's hideout. There wasn't so much as a twig out of place as far as he could tell. He thought maybe he could take Snow out there tomorrow and they could scope out the trails together.

A reminder of how far they'd come from the bandit princess and imposter prince days greeted him when he shut the door; Snow was sitting at the table with Emma's laptop open and a stack of papers and a notebook spread around her, Neal dozing in his playpen nearby.

She wasn't a Queen, perhaps, but his wife had an important job she took seriously all the same: Teaching.

Several "extracurriculars" had opened up over the past three years since the curse broke, so that the old would wouldn't be forgotten. (Or at least...so the kids would be prepared in case they were jettisoned back to the Enchanted Forest or, say, Wonderland appeared in the town square or something, you could never tell in Storybrooke...) Several nuns/fairies had helped to teach the extra programs. Considering several children needed to re-learn how to read when the curse broke, their level of education was impressive since there was always some town-wide emergency or other.

But there was a problem at the moment.

Due to two different teachers evacuating to the Enchanted Forest a few days ago, the school was shut down for the rest of the week in order to fill in the gaps. One position was kindergarten teacher, which wouldn't be too difficult since any kindly person who knew letters, numbers, colors, and didn't have any major criminal offenses would do nicely. The second position was a science teacher on a middle schooler's level, and since science was a rarity in magical Storybrooke, unless the school wanted kids to reanimate corpses or split their personalities, that left them with few options.

"How's it going?" David asked, kissing his wife's cheek before peering into the playpen. His son was flopped over on his back on top of a stuffer toy, one little foot twitching in his slumber.

"Okay. I've got a few science projects for the third and fourth graders but I'm not sure what to do with the older kids," Snow confessed, resting her chin on top of her fist. "Maybe we could let Marco substitute for awhile? Or maybe Doc? I think he spent the curse as a vet."

"You know that his brothers regularly make jokes about his college degree coming from a pick-axe, right?" David smiled. "And then he got his degree from a curse?"

"Well so did Archie and Whale, and people keep seeing them."

"Hmm..." he hummed, walking around the kitchen island. There was a sandwich on the counter he assumed, correctly, was his and took a bite out of it while he considered some options. "Any idea what they're learning right now?"

"Fifth grade is on physics, sixth is biology, seventh is an introduction to chemistry. I think the biology class is a clever euphemism for sex ed without too much of the _sex_."

"Hmmm..."

"That's what I said," Snow grimaced. "And I want to help because that's Henry's class and at the same time I can't teach it because...well a grandmother shouldn't have to give her grandson the talk, should I? That's something you should talk to him about."

"What? Why me?"

"Because you're his closest male relative, and Regina has already made it very clear she doesn't want Killian to give Henry so much as a word of advice about women."

David sided whole-heartedly with Regina on that front, too. He was...alright, with Killian Jones these days. The whole Dark One incident had reminded the former shepherd of who exactly Emma entangled herself with: A very selfish, very angry, very entitled pirate. When they went to Camelot, Killian had kept Emma to himself, and back in Storybrooke he'd made more problems than he'd solved trying to help. You could say they were all guilty there, but then when he realized he was a Dark One after all, it was like a switch flipped and it gave Killian all the reason in the world to hurt and threaten and nearly wipe the whole town's population off the map because he was upset.

That...made David uneasy. Especially with how Emma had to tread lightly and bend over backwards to please him all the while forgiving the hook-handed pirate for his every mistake. He wouldn't say it was a father's worst nightmare yet but it wasn't an ideal situation. But on the other hand, Emma was happy. That should be enough.

Right?

With one half of his sandwich inhaled, David took a sip of lemonade. There was a knock at the door that had Neal start making small noises in his pen, protesting the intrusion on his nap. Snow scooped their son up while David went to the door, opening it to find a stranger on the other side, standing with his arms folded behind his back.

This had to have been one of Hyde's men. There were people in Storybrooke David was still as good as a stranger with, who he wouldn't recognize if they said hello, but he could honestly say he had never seen this man before in his life. Not only that, but he was wearing some sort of uniform.

White trousers, tall black boots, a long deep blue coat with lots of polished brass buttons and long tails, broad shoulders mare broader through the cut of his coat and a high collar. The man had deeply tanned skin, and judging from the lines around his dark eyes David would judge him to be in his mid-forties, black hair neatly combed back and a trimmed mustache and beard on his lower face. Everything about this man radiated authority and a stern temperament, the sort of attitude that David would simply never have, the sort that a king or prince carried with him.

"Am I addressing the sheriff of Storybrooke?" the man asked, with a deep, commanding voice that had an edge of an accent if you listened hard enough. "I was told that I would find him or her at this residence."

"Uh...yes, what can I help you with?" David asked cautiously.

"Does a Mr. Gold not live in this town? I wish to speak with him. He may also use the epithet of Rumpelstiltskin, or the Dark One, perhaps."

Oh good god, what had the imp done now?

David, if he paused to think about it, had very little against Rumpelstiltskin/Gold himself. It was more the methods he used than his motivations that were a problem. The Dark One's way of doing things was usually a problem for the town, which in turn made it a problem for David and his family, even if they were for the same goal. There hadn't even been much evidence that Gold was up to anything sinister with the Olympian Crystal, but his good standing was eroded by everything he'd done during the Snow Queen and the scramble for the Author...which turned out to be more the Author's fault than his own, as Gold hadn't written anything, had he?

The thing was: Gold was so morally gray that it was impossible to tell if a dead body that turned up was directly his fault, or whether it was an unfortunate coincidence. When a man spends 300 years as the greatest chess-master of human lives, it makes it hard to see his motivations beyond the surface results.

Not to mention since every past villain in town had a link to Gold somehow, including this time, David really wouldn't be surprised if the man outside the door was waiting on revenge in some form.

"What's this about?" Snow asked from inside the apartment. David looked over his shoulder to find her bouncing Neal a bit, their son making soft burbling noises. Neal was something like four months old now. The trip to the Underworld had taken nearly a month, and from the way Snow had yet to put their boy down, David knew that missing month was going to haunt her for awhile yet. Snow was protective of Emma as it was when they'd missed her entire life up until three years ago, it was hard thinking the same could happen with their second child too...

David turned around to assess the stranger's demands when he was taken aback by the sudden softness in the man's dark eyes. Before, they had been hard, guarded, and flinty. Not unlike Regina's when the charming smiles and mockery were taken away during her Evil Queen phase. Now they had turned almost...wistful.

They hardened again when they turned to David's own blue eyes, but not quite so impassable as before.

"I met Gold and his wife some months ago in a place called the Land Without Stories-"

"Months?" David blinked. Had he misheard that?

"Yes..." the stranger nodded, giving them a suspicious look. "Were you not aware that time passes differently in that realm? It stops completely. No one ages, no one dies. It is where people go when they have an unpleasant future, or broken past, to get behind them. I assumed you knew that."

"We...did not. What were you saying though?"

"The man I'm seeking is rather short, older, with graying hair and dark eyes, and walks with a cane and limp. His wife is even smaller than he is, younger with brown hair, blue eyes, and she would be quite obviously with child now," the man described, and David couldn't help but feel he now thought of them as a bit slow. "You do know them? They do live here, yes?"

"Well, they did, but then they...left."

The man's dark eyes narrowed. "I am familiar with what you, Sheriff, and your family define as 'left.' That is why I come here with two purposes. One is to see what happened to the Golds. I thought they would have returned to their home by now, but obviously that is not the case, so I shall give you a warning about Miss Swan's lover."

"Killian?"

At the mention of the former pirate's name, that flinty look returned and David subtly moved between the stranger and his family, wishing he had his gun or sword close to hand.

"Yes. Killian Jones, Captain Hook, King of the Flotsam and Jetsam, whatever he wishes to call himself now. You would do well to keep that man as far from your family as you can, especially if you have something of worth. And while it pains me to admit as such, he is cunning enough to know that not all treasure is silver and gold."

Snow shifted Neal to her other hip, looking as perplexed as David felt. "What do you mean by that?"

"I am not privy to many details, but I've had encounters with Captain Hook. If he's after the shelter your station provides, he will take advantage of your goodwill. If he is after your valuables, he will steal them. And if he is after your women, you had better pray she is strong enough to resist his dubious charms. Otherwise...well, there will hardly be enough left to recognize her when he's finished."

Killian had never been violent with Emma. If he were, David didn't doubt for a minute his daughter would beat the living shit out of the man. Emma had a tough upbringing, a tough life, and while she had support in Storybrooke now the times could still get tough enough to need a physical resolution. Even as the Dark One, Killian hadn't raised a hand against her.

"Killian would never hurt Emma," Snow insisted, as if reading David's thoughts. "He loves her, and she loves him. I'm not sure what Killian did to you in the past but he's different now, he's _changed_."

The man snorted and spun on his heel away from the door. "You are Snow White, then. I see what Mr. Gold meant when he said you have a rose-tinted reality for your family. I imagine that by now you've forgotten how many times he's tried to kill someone in town, or how he hurt Emma Swan multiple times in the past, long before he was ever cursed."

David did block the door that time, trying to stare down the man. It was hard, though, when the stranger looked down his straight nose at David like he was a child trying to act a man.

"I don't know what Gold told you, but he isn't perfectly innocent either. He's done far more harm than Hook has."

But even as he said it, a niggling of doubt tickled the back of David's mind...because that wasn't entirely true. Gold as the Dark One had always had a goal, an elaborate plan with an elaborate prize at the end, but it was rare for anyone to die by his hands, and never out of spite. Something it was bad like a chance to cleave himself from the dagger, sometimes it had the best of intentions like whatever he'd been trying to do to break Belle's curse. And Killian had always been driven by revenge and anger for as long as David had known him...even before the Dark One resided within him...

And the way this stranger lifted a thick brow, David felt like the man in front of him knew that too.

"We, Mr. Gold and I, never met before that day, Sheriff, and yet, we are very alike. You heroic men fear our breed of morality. An eye for an eye, good intentions mean nothing, the hard choices are our only choices. I know Gold is far from innocent. I saw in his eyes that he was a man who has regrets. Whose done things he's tried to change, and yet, they never will. He is a man who knows he is or was wrong and takes steps to correct it. Your captain is a man who says he's changed without ever taking a step to prove it. I wish you and your family a good evening, Sheriff, you may not have many more before Hyde is through with your town."

And he walked away, and the weight of his words was enough to keep David frozen for a moment before he blurted: "Who are you?"

The man turned over his shoulder, poised to head down the stairs.

"The commander of the Nautilus, Captain Nemo. If you don't believe my words, perhaps you should ask your pirate for his side of the tale."

And then he was really gone.

David turned to Snow, who held Neal just the slightest bit tighter. Her face was paler than usual when their eyes met. No threat to town had ever come into the apartment, as far as David could remember. Even the strange Underworld facsimile, it had been a safe haven for their family.

And what was more disturbing than this violation, or the confirmation that Hyde had brought followers to town with him, or that Captain Nemo had a bone to pick with Captain Hook...was that if Rumpelstiltskin and Belle had been headed home to Storybrooke after who knew how long, then that meant something terrible had happened to Belle, didn't it?

* * *

Leroy could, regardless of the opinion of other people, keep a secret. He could keep Gold and Astrid's location a secret. He did not go running through town every time he learned something important, as evident by how little running-and-shouting he'd done since Zelena was the town's biggest threat.

Well...he also hadn't been involved in much since Zelena was a (confirmed) threat, so there wasn't much to shout about. The last time he went to the heroes, anyway, was when evil!Emma stole Happy's axe (they had snuck into Emma's house while everyone was in the Underworld and got it back,) and were told not to worry about it.

It was becoming an unfortunate pattern that Snow and Charming put off any sort of problem that didn't involve themselves, or Regina, or Emma. And they'd gone to hell for the pirate while Dopey was still a tree.

Leroy knew he was going to be sour over this one for a long while yet. Especially as they were down to the Six Dwarves and a Tree Outside The Town Line. Because his brother was still a tree.

However...Astrid was going to call him. That had made him cheerful enough, despite the surrounding circumstances, that Granny had asked if he was alright twice before he left the diner where he had his dinner. He was trying to hurry home because he wasn't sure when Astrid might call, and he still needed to get her number. Tink's number. A number. Whatever.

Leroy's apartment was a rather shitty place in one of the shittiest parts of town. Leroy of Storybrooke had been the town drunk, working irregular hours at the hospital as a night janitor. He hadn't cared where he lived. He hadn't cared that he lived. It wasn't unusual these days for three or four-or all seven,-of he and his brothers to end up crashing together in one's home now. It just happened that way. Now he couldn't wait to get home, for once in either life. If it were anyone else he'd call them a lovestruck idiot, but since he was the idiot in this situation, he couldn't care.

In his haste, he nearly collided with a man dressed like in a dark turtleneck sweater and a knit cap like any number of fisherman. "Pardon me, sir," the man had said as polite as could be, stepping back. "I'm a bit...distracted."

Leroy paused a moment, looking the man over. This part of Storybrooke wasn't as close to the docks as Tink's place, but close enough to The Rabbit Hole that fishermen and sailors were seen around here often enough. It wouldn't have been unusual...except the man was wearing these tall boots no one in Storybrooke wore. And he'd gone back to ignoring Leroy in favor of looking up at the sky.

"You're not from around here, are you?" he guessed.

"I'm not even sure," the stranger grinned. "The last time I was in this realm, you could scarcely see the night sky in town through the coal smoke curling up from the chimneys. It's a bit overwhelming to see what has changed and what's remained the same."

Ah hell, it was one of Hyde's creeps, wasn't it? Typical. Leroy wished he had his axe with him, or some weapon. He could hardly put up a fight with a fistful of change, the contents of his battered wallet, and two Starlight mints. The ones with the green stripes.

Fortunately, Leroy didn't have to resort to tossing green attack-mints at the man. He was already walking off down the street, in the vague direction of the docks.

And some devil in Leroy, or some spark of curiosity, had prompted him to shout: "Hey! Who the hell are you?"

The man grinned over his shoulder. He was sort of pale, with a shock of dark hair curling from under his cap, and gray eyes. "Call me Ishmael."

Leroy wasn't a big reader in any world, but he felt that was supposed to be a clue. Apparently everyone in the Land of Untold Stories, according to the theories flying around in the diner, was a literature character. Not a fairytale like in the Enchanted Forest, but an actual, honest-to-god fictional character. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for example. Ishmael...Ishmael... _Call me Ishmael_...what the hell was _that_ from?

* * *

Henry wasn't sure what the hell he was going to do now. When the sun started going down, he realized that his moms would start looking for him. Which meant his grandparents would start looking for him. Which meant the town would be on Amber Alert. Or Henry-and-Violet Alert. Likely they wouldn't care what happened to Gold now that they knew he wasn't the Dark One and didn't remember anything, (as far as they knew,) and Astrid wasn't important enough to warrant a fuss unless the Blue Fairy wanted to raise a stink.

But Henry's moms? And Violet's father?

Oh god...Violet's father. Sir Morgan was going to hunt Henry down with a sword and-Oh god. What the hell was he supposed to do?

While contemplating his impending demise by the hands of a Yankee in King Arthur's court, the crystals were almost all attached to the frame. Tink had made Henry question if super-glue would be enough, but really, it was the best idea he had. Actually, his whole plan was: Stay out the way, fix the mirror, help Belle by making Gold remember. That was the plan. Normally Henry had prided himself on his scheming skills, since he was ten and slipped away to Boston to find his birth mother, but things had been happening all day and left him too up-in-the-air to figure out a better plan.

It was good that Tink got the dreamcatcher to work. She seemed reluctant to go through all of Gold's memories, and Henry could understand why. At the moment, he was Gold. A confused man with a limp and short silver hair. If he got all his memories back in one go, there was no telling what he'd remember first. It could be something in the missing gap of time between his vanishing in New York and whatever happened before he appeared in the shop. Or it could be something from New York.

Henry wasn't proud of his actions now. They were rather...selfish, short-sighted, ill-advised. His mothers and grandparents were quick to reassure him he was trying to do the right thing, and yet, nobody mentioned that Belle was trapped in a box, under a curse, in another realm because he'd cut Gold off in the middle of his retrieval attempt.

At the moment, Henry was Gold's strongest ally. He knew Gold the best, for what it was worth. So he couldn't really risk confessing, without it sounding odd.

_'I'm your grandson, by the way. I know that seems odd but it's true. I'm related to everyone in town. Your son was my father, but I didn't know him very long, just a few weeks or so, because Mom gave birth to me in prison because she went to jail, something about stolen watched, I'm not sure, but August made the situation worse than it was. Oh, no, see, he's dead because Zelena tricked him into bringing you back to life, after you died killing your evil father Peter Pan. And the reason you had to go to another realm to wake your wife was because I stopped you from bringing her back in New York because I thought destroying magic would make things better, but it's kinda made things worse. Do you still trust me?'_

Yeah...no.

The truth would come out at some point, but Henry wasn't ready for it yet. There was too much to get through first.

Astrid and Tinkerbelle hadn't found anything interesting in the magic books yet. In fact, they'd stopped reading and had gone into the kitchen, Tink to find something to feed them, (oh god it was getting late, wasn't it?) and Astrid...well Henry wasn't sure what she was up to. She didn't seem to know how to cook. Earlier, Gold had gotten up to stretch his bad leg so it wouldn't seize up and he and the now-former nun could be overheard talking about the stove.

("Where do you put the wood?" "Oh no, it runs on electricity. Or gas. I think this one's electric." "How does electricity cook the food?" "Uh...I think it powers that thingie in the bottom of the stove and it makes the inside of the oven hot. Like a forge." "Ah. So how does that contraption work?" "The fridge? I think the same principle, but instead of hot, it makes things colder." "Does it use gas?" "I don't know-" Henry thought he saw the light from the fridge shining in the little kitchen, "-maybe? Can gas be cold?")

Tinkerbelle had to shoo them out the kitchen. Impending fears aside, Henry had to admit this had been an interesting afternoon.

Violet shifted beside him and said, "So...Henry? What do we do now? I mean...my father is going to get worried if I don't come home soon."

"You can go home if you'd like," Henry offered. "You've done more than enough, I appreciate it."

"No, no I want to help! It's just...you know my father. He's very, uh, protective. Maybe I should call him to let him know I'm not...I dunno, kidnapped? Dead? In another realm?"

Henry realized, then, that he didn't have a cellphone. He'd left it at the convent. One of these days, he'd figure out how to disable that tracker Emma had installed on his phone. Then he could stop losing them. Still, back to the matter at hand, Violet had a good idea. Henry nodded, half-noticing Gold get up and limp away. He must've sat for too long because he had to pause and stretch a little, resting one hand on the back of Tink's armchair to work the kinks out his back.

"If you want to stay, that would be a good idea. I mean it though, if you want to go home, I'd understand. This is all a bit...much, even for me."

Violet shrugged. "I don't really mind. It's kind of...well, it wasn't fun carrying a heart around for most of the afternoon, but I'm having fun with you. It's an adventure."

Henry opened his mouth to say something-he wasn't sure what but he knew he had to say something, probably something about how he would be happy if she stayed but would totally be fine with her leaving because things might take an even worse turn soon, so she didn't get hurt, and so her father didn't have even more reason to hunt him down and start cutting off body parts,-when Tink slipped up to them with two cans of Coke, and Gold behind her with large plate of sandwiches.

"We have tuna, PB and J, and potato salad sandwiches," Tink said quietly. "Take your pick."

Henry was careful to select a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Gold sat in the armchair with a napkin to catch the crumbs of his sandwich. (It looked like potato salad from here...apparently Tink was either short on time and improvising, or she needed to make a run to the grocery store and couldn't cook either.) It was odd seeing his grandfather eating a Wonderbread-and-potato salad sandwich, for some reason Henry always thought of Gold as more the sort to sit in an armchair with a glass tumbler of whiskey like a James Bond villain. Then again, apparently he loved the hamburgers from Granny's Diner. Maybe there was lot about him Henry didn't know.

Starting from now, Henry would have to settle for what happened to Belle when they got the portal up and running, or when Tink skimmed through more of Gold's memories. And if Gold and Belle could forgive him for messing up, maybe they could go from there.

* * *

Nemo found his first mate sitting on the docks smoking a pipe. "Is everything in order aboard the Nautilus?"

"Yessir. Ship-shape," the younger man replied, standing up. "How did your meeting go?"

"I had more than one meeting. Both were rather interesting, I think. I haven't quite found what I was looking for though. I may have to try another source in the morning."

"You aren't staying at Mr. Hyde's base?"

Nemo rolled his eyes, climbing down the dock's ladder into a rowboat. There wasn't enough room in that house, not with all those egos colliding, even if Nemo wanted to stay on dry land. He'd lost his taste for it years ago.

"I don't think I could sleep on land, quite honestly. Come along Ishmael, I wish to return to my ship."


	10. X. Call Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My computer is acting goofy, so writing has slowed. Here is a completed chapter of this, I'm cooking up a few chapters of The Unresolved as we speak. And thank you to everyone who nominated The Unresolved, Hello from the Sin Cave, The Caretaker's Secret, and Beauty within the Beast for assorted TEA nominations! You guys are lovely! :)

Violet stepped into the kitchen to find Astrid holding a bar-shaped device attached to a telephone box mounted to the wall. Like the one at Granny's Diner, only without the coin slot Henry pointed out to her. Astrid was staring at the spinning disk used to summon another telephone like she wasn't sure how to use it.

"Are you calling someone?" Violet asked. She had intended to call her father from here, but she could step into the hall if she needed to.

Astrid pressed her lips together. "Yeah...um, you spin the dialer thingie on this phone, right?"

"I think so, yes."

The woman looked at something scrawled across her palm and then dialed in the correct number. She looked extremely nervous, and Violet felt the need to ask if she was okay when she put the speaker bar to her ear and bounced on the balls of her feet while she waited.

"Who are you calling?" Violet asked.

"Um...Leroy."

"The man that left here earlier?"

" _Yessss_..." Astrid said slowly, look sheepish, like she expected to be chided. "We...talk."

It occured to Violet that the brunette was acting like some of the girls back in Camelot that had sweethearts and were too shy to talk about it. Oh. They were sweethearts? This nice, bubbly young woman and the grouchy, gruff man with a permanent scowl? Well...Leroy hadn't scowled as much when she was around...huh. What do you know?

Violet smiled and stepped out of the kitchen, leaving Astrid to her phone call. She stepped into the short hall that led to the doors for Tinkerbelle's bedroom and small bathroom, and slipped into the bathroom before dialing her father. Hopefully he wouldn't be too upset-

_"Violet? Where are you? What's happened?"_

Or he would be in full-fledged papa-bear mode.

"It's me, and I'm fine, Father, really-"

 _"Do you have any idea what time it is?"_ Her father snapped, sounding equal parts angry and relieved at once. _"You've been gone for hours! I was this close to calling the sheriff, I thought you'd been kidnapped! There's some madman running around town with a bunch of lackeys and I don't want you anywhere near them."_

"I'm sorry, really, some stuff just came up and I was really busy," Violet apologized, because that much was true. She loved her father dearly but ever since her mother had been killed, Sir Morgan had been protective of Violet. _Very_ protective. If she hadn't come back in the company of the town heroes and Henry from New York, she probably wouldn't have been allowed outside the house until she was twenty. "I promised to help Henry with a project that...got a lot bigger than I thought it would be."

 _"That Mills boy again?"_ her father said, and she could almost hear him narrowing his eyes in disapproval. _"That's it, I'm coming to pick you up. Where are you?"_

Violet pressed her lips together. On the one hand, it probably would be a good idea to go home and put her father's worries to rest. On the other hand, if Henry's family came sniffing around her, she'd get in a lot more trouble. But on a theoretical third hand, Violet could use this opportunity to sound out what their afternoon exploits at the convent had done to the town and if Henry needed to find a secret hideout or not...

"I'm at Henry's," Violet answered ambiguously. "I'll leave right now and meet you at Granny's."

Her father hummed. _"Okay. We're going to have a little talk about boundaries though. You can't keep running off with that boy, or one of these days the two of you will end up in big trouble."_

"I know, I'll see you soon Father," Violet promised, hanging up.

She let her head fall back and sighed all the air out of her lungs, filling them with a slow, deep inhale. Her father's goodwill for Henry, largely granted when Henry returned her horse from his excursion to a pumpkin patch, had dried up in the wake of New York. He was also not too fond of his mothers-the Evil Queen and the Dark One, (Emma wasn't the Dark One really but try explaining that to him,)-or Emma's lover.

Goodness knows what Sir Morgan would think if she told him she and Henry were hiding out with two fairies and harboring Rumpelstiltskin...

* * *

Astrid hadn't felt so nervous and excited since she had once stood on Firefly Hill watching the shimmering bugs flit about like living stars, and a certain dwarf showed up when she was sure he hadn't picked up on her hints. Now, a phone call shouldn't be half as nerve-wracking, really, since this time she knew Leroy would be on the end of the line, and they knew each other a bit better, and weren't as naïve as they had been once upon a time.

But oh goodness, she almost hung up the phone when the dial tone stopped and a man answered, _"Hello?"_

"Hi! It's me!" Astrid blurted out. "Is this Leroy?"

 _"Yeah, uh, yeah, it's me. Um...hi?"_ He sounded as nervous and clueless as Astrid did, and that was oddly comforting.

She twirled the phone cord around her fingers, playing with the tight, plastic spiral. "So, I have this number. Tink gave it to me. Did you want it?"

_"Yes! Yes, uh, lemme find a pen. Umm...one second..."_

He must've set down the phone, but Astrid thought she heard something toppled over in the background. She suspected that Leroy wasn't a very good housekeeper, his home was likely a bit messy. It wasn't more than ten seconds, but it felt like ten minutes, before he picked up the phone again and told her to go ahead. Astrid repeated the number Tink gave her. She could hear Leroy mutter each number as she said it, then, _"Alright, got it. So...what do you want to talk about?"_

It was funny. Astrid had no idea. She could have filled a hundred hours with things she'd though up while she was stuck in the convent, but now she didn't have a single clue. "Would it be okay if I ask you how your brothers are?" she tried, thinking polite inquiries might be a safe place to start.

 _"Ah, well, five out of six are the same as ever,"_ he replied after a moment, and she detected a bit of tension. _"Dopey's still_ a tree _but nobody seems to remember that."_

"Oh, oh no, I'm sorry, I didn't know that! How did it happen?"

_"You remember how after the first curse, if you crossed the town line, you'd be your Storybrooke self? Now you just turn into a tree."_

"Has anyone tried to-Well that's a stupid question, if they tried to fix it they'd either succeed or be a tree, too."

She thought she heard Leroy laugh on the other end of the line. He didn't laugh enough, it was nice to hear, and that little knot of tension in her stomach fluttered away.

_"Yeah, well, thanks anyway. So how's the research project with the Dark One going?"_

"Okay, I suppose? I mean there haven't been any fireballs or magic hats, so pretty good, I think? I read about a spell that turns people into flowers you can carry around in your pocket and then turn them into people again," she said. A little light at the back of her head went off and Astrid filed that away for later. "Hey, does a refrigerator run on electricity or gas?"

_"Electricity. Why?"_

"Mr. Gold and I were talking about it earlier, actually. It's really weird how his memory works. He knows what electricity is, but not how it's used in appliances."

 _"Huh...he really doesn't remember_ anything, _does he?"_

"Nope. He's kind of nice, actually. Kind of reminds me of Henry, actually."

 _"That poor kid has the weirdest family..."_ Leroy muttered. _"Oh. Speaking of, Regina was in the diner earlier asking if anyone had seen him..."_

* * *

No one had seen hide nor hair of Henry, Violet, Gold, or Astrid since the nun committed grand theft auto.

Regina, David, Emma, and Hook had been all over Storybrooke to no avail. There was nothing. Not at Gold's cabin, not at Gold's shop, not at Regina's, Emma's, the loft, or the diner. There was _nothing_ nowhere.

The leading canidate for who's fault this was had to have been the Blue Fairy. Her bright idea was the catalyst to this mess. Her and the pirate, who acted as detached as though Henry were just a friend's dog that ran off rather than his potential future step-son. Hyde was out there! Hyde and, according to Charming, Captain Nemo with some bone to pick with the Dark One! And Henry was with Gold, Dark One or not!

The only way this situation could get any worse from Regina's point of view would be for Henry to be trying to rewrite the town, but she had greater faith in her son's good sense than she did in Isaac "Look at my irony!" Heller.

Regina wanted to be angry, she wanted to punch something, or someone, and she wanted to scream...but she just felt tired instead. That wasn't really surprising.

She wasn't sure she'd gotten a decent sleep since...um...let's see...probably a few nights during those six weeks in Camelot? Maybe? There was little restful sleep to be had while the Dark Swan was covering for her boyfriend, then Hook turned into a greasy emo version of himself on a bad day and sicced the Dark Ones on the town, then they had to storm the Underworld and the mess that turned into-Yes, a few nights during Camelot.

They were all exhausted, really. Physically, emotionally, mentally...

Henry was probably protesting everything, and not without some guilt if Regina had to guess, but couldn't he wait a few weeks to strike out?

Regina trudged home as it started getting dark, just hoping that her son was somewhere safe for the night. Regina didn't claim to know Rumpelstiltskin's son very well, but she gleaned that all the Stiltskin men had an element of cleverness to their way of thinking.

For tonight, (and only tonight because tomorrow she would go all over town again, and drag her little prince home by the ear because she was worried sick,) she chose to believe Henry was okay.

She was greeted at home by a wailing baby inside and sighed, kicking off her heels and shuffling to collect baby Robin from Zelena, who was looking almost as flustered as the daughter she was trying to soothe. Regina ignored the look Zelena leveled her when the little girl slowly stopped crying as soon as she was passed off, and slumped on the sofa with a sigh.

She was _tired_. That was probably why she felt so numb inside.

Well, not so numb as to not feel that pinch in her chest when she noticed the baby girl had her daddy's nose.

* * *

Hank Morgan's life had gone a bit topsy-turvy over the past few years to be sure. One moment he was in Connecticut, the next he'd stumbled down a veritable rabbit hole into Camelot.

 _Camelot_.

He was the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's freaking Court.

A series of bizarre adventures later, he'd been made a knight by King Arthur. Sir Morgan of Connecticut. Fortunately, there were other knights that Arthur preferred to do his bidding for him, and Morgan was left to his own devices most of the time. He'd ended up falling in love with Alisande, a girl who was a bit of a wanderer but her family owned the stables which became hers once they were married and settled.

Stables were much easier to tend to than a knighthood.

By the age of ten, their daughter Violet could out-ride any squire at court. Her mother was very proud of her, and Morgan couldn't help but be proud too. They'd raised a fine, well-mannered, clever little girl with big brown eyes. Alisande had teased Morgan that he'd been wrapped around Violet's tiny finger the moment he laid eyes on her. And she wasn't very wrong, either.

Then a witch killed Alisande. With magic.

Morgan was not a fan of magic. It didn't abide by any rules he could figure out, and those that had it were very selfish in how they used it. He was never sure what caused the death because he and Violet had been out riding when it happened. There was little hope of finding out what really happened other than what Arthur said had happened for two reasons: One, the people of Camelot were sheep for Arthur. Two, Arthur was a lying sack of dog crap.

A few years ago, Violet had gotten very sick. Morgan had taken her to a healer in the next kingdom over, and in the month they were gone, somehow Arthur had built a massive citadel for Camelot and gotten everyone adoringly under his thumb. Even Queen Guinevere.

It was a poorly kept secret among the Round Table's knights that Lancelot and Guinevere were in love, but there was never any proof of anything less-than-moral about it, and Arthur was none the wiser. (Unsurprisingly.) The Queen was a dutiful wife though, and Lancelot kept the kingdom defended in Arthur's constant absence. They were a stronger couple than Arthur and Guinevere, happier besides.

And yet, Lancelot was long gone, too, from Camelot. Most people were convinced he'd tried to led Guinevere astray and was banished for betraying the king, but that was absolutely batty. It had to have been magic twisting the situation around,but, Morgan had a daughter to raise, and if whatever lie Arthur told was bolstering the spirits of the kingdom, then they'd go along with it.

Still, once Arthur was found dead and whatever spell he'd cast shattered, there wasn't much love lost for the king, especially considering the lives lost on his pointless quest to seize a dagger from the most powerful magical being in existence.

Sir Morgan was happy to hang up his sword and stay in quiet little Storybrooke as Hank Morgan again, honestly. The owner of the stables in town had evacuated to the Enchanted Forest and sold him his properties for song, so it was hardly a big adjustment. There were some odd new things that had been absent before: The Internet, celluar phones, a good twenty years of pop culture references he didn't understand. But at least things were quiet around here.

At least he hoped so...as long as that Mills boy stopped getting his daughter into trouble.

He knew he was very protective of Violet, his only child. But while Henry impressed him by bringing back Neptune to Violet, damn it all, then he had to go and take her off on some crazy road trip to New York where she was in constant danger. That wasn't even touching on how his birth mother was the witch that brought them all to Storybrooke in the first place, her boyfriend simultaneously marked them all for death, and Henry's foster mother was the Evil Queen.

Basically, for a protective father, Henry Mills was a nightmare.

Luckily, it seems Violet was responsible enough to use her new phone to call him and tell him why she was out late. (And not in across state lines...) She said she was leaving Henry's house and going to Granny's, so Morgan set out to meet her there. She was sitting at one of the patio tables outside of the diner when he walked up the street, looking no worse than when she left the house that morning despite it being close to eight at night now.

The walk home had seen Morgan delivering a stern lecture about responsibility and safety, while trying to impress upon his daring daughter that he was worried sick and hoped she'd at least use that text button on her phone to let him know she when she was going to be out late next time.

(Oh please, god, don't let there be a next time, please?)

"I know, I'm sorry Dad, I was just really busy with this project Henry's working on," Violet said, looking guilty enough that Morgan thought the lesson had sunk in, good. "I promise to keep you in the loop next time."

Morgan sighed, wrapping an arm around them as they turned the corner to the apartment they were calling home now.

" _Good_. And I'm sorry if I made a fuss over this, but there's a lot going on in this town right now. There's some kind of madman calling himself Mr. Hyde running around, apparently. The sheriff made an announcement about it this afternoon, telling everyone to stay on guard. And if there's anything I know about these types of people from works of fiction, it's that they're always worse than the story painted them out to be."

Violet paused, looking up at him. "Henry said something about King Arthur being a story in this land. Is Mr. Hyde a story too?"

Since they lived in Camelot, Morgan had never seen much point in educating Violet about his native world. He'd told her some fairytales as bedtime stories, (there was irony in that,) and explained some scientific facts rather than letting Violet believe that pixies curdled milk or made it snow, but for the most part, they were Camelotian. Camelites. Camelotic. _Whatever_.

"It's called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Morgan explained. "It's about a man named Dr. Jekyll that took a potion to separate the evil from himself. Only he didn't so much separate himself as he managed to split his personality. Dr. Jekyll is a meek, quiet man and Mr. Hyde is a vicious brute. That's why I don't want you wandering around town with him on the loose, he's a very dangerous character, and I hear he brought more with him. There was a rumor today that Captain Nemo was seen around the sheriff's home, too. He's not as dangerous as Hyde but he's still someone I don't want you around."

"What story is he from?"

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a pretty good book actually. Nemo is the captain of this, uh, this sort of boat that travels underwater, a submarine. He hates the people that live on land because of a war that killed his family, but I have no idea what the real Nemo wants. You know, tomorrow we should visit that library across the street from Granny's Diner and check out some books. Or maybe rent some movies."

Did people still rent movies?

Unbeknownst to Morgan, Violet thought that was an excellent idea. Maybe she could find a story about blue crystals and water...

But what did it mean that both Dr. Jekyll _and_ Mr. Hyde were in town, in separate bodies?


	11. XI. Expansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And lo, a burst of inspiration struck and a chapter and a half was born when I should have been doing other stuff! There's some more Gold backstory in this chapter, FYI. Oh, and some Hook. Guard thine eyeballs.

Tink's twin mattress was just a touch too small for two people to lay on their backs without someone falling off in the night.

Her sofa was a sleeper-sofa, this sort of couch that you pulled the cushions off and a bed folded out of the bottom. Marvelous. Astrid took the recliner, wrapped up in a blanket with her whole head covered and her stocking feet sticking out the end. Gold and Henry took the sofa-bed, facing opposite directions. Henry stole the blankets, but Gold couldn't find it in him to care too much. The boy was probably exhausted from being the only person knowing what was going on today.

When Gold nodded off, he found himself floating in a dark room, with a watery blue light around him. Most of the light seemed to be coming from above him, so it seemed natural to drift upwards. He floated up and up, until he could see a blurry, shadowy image of the surface, and hear muffled voices. Perhaps if he surfaced, he could hear them clearly...and...something fell on his legs.

Gold bolted upright, nearly cracking heads with Astrid.

"Ack!"

"Eek!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Gold yelped, scooting back on the folding mattress away from her.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Gold!" Astrid squeaked, tumbling off the mattress to the floor before popping back up to her feet. "I am so sorry, I was trying to close the legs on the recliner but I stumbled and I am so sorry!"

"Astrid!" Tink called from somewhere deep in the apartment. "Stop apologizing and come here, I might have something for you to wear that isn't green after all."

Astrid sighed, giving Gold another apologetic/fearful look before scurrying away. Henry stirred on the other side of the bed, lifting his head up from where he'd been nested in blankets. "Whazzat?"

"Nothing much, I believe."

"Oh...wait, what time is it?"

A large clock on the wall displayed the time as being a quarter past seven. Henry flung the blankets off and crawled out of bed, stumbling around for his shoes. "God...how close are we to finishing that mirror?"

"We'll probably be done today, tomorrow at most. Are you certain this glue will hold?"

"Well...do you have a better idea?"

"Not that I can _remember_."

Henry snorted. "Funny...so...think Tink has anything for breakfast?"

They shuffled into the kitchen and found a pot of coffee already brewing. Gold stuck his head in the refrigerator and found a paper case of eggs. Henry found something he called English muffins and put them into this square silver contraption that toasted the bread while Gold dug out a frying pan. He was very tired of this selective amnesia, because what did it matter that he remembered how to fry and scramble eggs when he couldn't remember his own damned wife's face?

He had a wife. A pregnant wife. A pregnant wife somewhere out there...probably. _Belle_. A pretty little name. The brief glimpse of her showed she was a pretty little thing herself, with brown hair and pale skin...and that was all he could really remember. It hadn't been a long or clear look. He'd have to ask Tink to pick his brain some more.

The woman herself came into the kitchen, looking with surprise at the toasted bread and scrambled eggs.

"Huh, well that keeps me from making you all cereal. Thanks. The bathroom's open by the way, if you want to shower or whatever. I think there are some razors under the sink if you want a shave, Gold."

He did. His face was starting to feel...itchy.

He grabbed the garment bag his only change of clothes was kept in and headed to the bathroom. It was small, a shower-tub combo directly opposite the door, a one-sink vanity and a medicine cabinet mirror, and the toilet itself, a towel rack on the wall near the shower. And some sort of lady's undergarment hanging on the back of the door. In black.

Gold wasn't sure if he should move it or not, so he resolved to ignore it.

He took a quick shower, not trusting his balance on a wet, slippery surface for longer than necessary, and dried off quickly. There was a package of pink, plastic razors and some floral-scented foam for shaving with, and Gold decided it was better to have a clean face than suffer from an overabundance of masculinity. He got his pants on and threaded his belt through the loops, and shrugged into the new shirt. He decided against the tie and the vest and jacket, for now, because that seemed excessively formal for breakfast, and would only get in the way later in the day. His hair was short enough that it was dry, and a few strokes of his fingers had it looking neat. Good.

But Henry whipped his head around when Gold sat beside him on the re-folded couch with his plate of breakfast.

"What?"

"Uh...nothing. You just look more... _you_. With short hair, I mean."

"He's missing a few layers," Tink disagreed, wiping crumbs off her mouth. "You want to talk a dramatic wardrobe change, Astrid's wearing _pants_."

Astrid frowned at Tinkerbelle, consciously running her fingers over the knee of her jeans. She had on a relatively plain bluish-gray blouse with long sleeves, buttoned all they way to her neck, and her hair was scraped back in a messy bun. She didn't look quite like a nun, but she didn't look comfortable either.

Tink was unaffected by her glare, smiling sweetly. "I bet Leroy likes it."

Astrid turned red. "Oh hush."

* * *

"Where is she?"

Leroy swallowed his coffee before looking up at the Blue Fairy. He didn't have enough caffeine for this, and he hadn't even had anything to eat yet. This was one dwarf that wasn't in the mood to handle any bitchy fairy-nuns and their vague, demanding questions.

"Where's who?"

"Astrid!" she said curtly. "Where is she? You're the only person she knows in town, you're the only person she'd talk to. Where is she, and what has she done with the Dark One?"

The other dwarves were lined up at the counter on the other side of Leroy, all craning around one another to watch. The only one with a front row seat, so to speak, was Bashful, who was too nervous to speak. The Blue Fairy didn't quite tap her foot, but you could see she really had to fight the urge to.

" _Well_?"

"Well, I don't know where she is. It's not like you exactly gave her a weekend pass to come visit," Leroy snarked. "What makes you think I know where she went?"

"Why would Astrid do anything with Gold anyway?" Sleepy yawned into his palm. "He isn't even in town."

"Oh, yes, he is," the Blue Fairy snapped. "And we need to find him and stop him before he hurts anyone."

Leroy rolled his eyes. "You wanna help protect people? Maybe you ought to go stop Mr. Hyde, you know, the current threat? Or help turn Dopey back into a person again, or find out where Belle is?"

"That's true," Happy agreed. "Nobody's seen her since she vanished from the convent."

Apparently the slight hint that Rheul Gorm was being passive to the many bad things that had happened lately was enough to distract her. She drew herself up as tall as she could and looked down her nose at each of them.

"As you say, I _do_ have work to do. So the faster you tell me where that foolish girl is, the better."

Regina burst through the door, then. She cast her eye around the diner before settling on the Blue Fairy with only a slightly irritated look on her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for the Dark One, and my wayward fairy," she sniffed.

Regina snorted. "Well obviously they aren't here. David found your van parked behind Gold's shop, do you want to maybe take a look at that?"

The Blue Fairy gave Leroy one last glare before sweeping out the diner, slamming the door shut behind her. Regina looked heavenward for a moment, probably wondering when the hell she had to start working with uppity fairy chieftans, and slipped out after her. Everything was quiet for a moment before the usual murmuring and chattering resumed. Two waitresses behind the counter came and started laying out breakfast plates in front of the dwarves, and most of them considered that the end of that.

Leroy did not.

It would be one thing if it was just the heroes looking for Gold, but if the Blue Fairy was in on it, that could mean trouble for Astrid and Henry if they got caught with him. Unfortunately, Leroy wasn't entirely sure what to do about that just yet...maybe he'd come up with an idea after he finished his bacon.

* * *

There were a handful of tiny crystals left to glue into place. Henry let Gold do that job because, given a magnifying glass, he was better at the fiddly work than Henry was.

Tinkerbelle and Astrid hadn't found any concrete leads. One of the books had a surprising amount of water damage, which blurred the runes to where Astrid could barely make them out. And that was the most useful passage they'd found, something about a lost city with magic crystals that had a variety of uses. Healing, a power source, providing light, longevity, certain more vague mystical qualities Astrid couldn't decipher. She couldn't make out where to find them, or even the name of the city. Tink confessed to being terrible at the reading portions of fairy knowledge, and couldn't fill in any of the blanks either.

Not for the first time, Henry wished his grandfather had his whole memory back. Rumpelstiltskin had three hundred years of reading, travelling, and experimentation behind him, easily making him the cleverest sorcerer alive. And they were his books, for god's sake, he probably knew what they said. But that was the problem, he didn't know what they said.

He remembered how to shave and Arthurian legends, but nothing that was practical in getting his memories or Belle back.

Maybe the worst part was that Henry still couldn't work out how to tell him, _"I'm your grandson."_   Probably...because that would involve telling him Dad died. And that was something he shouldn't have to hear again. (Well, the way Mom told her time travel story, a third time, at least...) His other grandparents had made a rather impressive life for themselves by dodging consequences for their actions, but Henry couldn't do that. The guilt was starting to gnaw at him, for trying to destroy magic, for trapping Belle in another world, for not noticing she was gone in the Underworld...for only spending time with Gold when it benefited him directly...

Henry would have to face the music sooner or later. He wasn't expecting Gold to forgive him for everything, but he had to try.

His other family were always saying nothing was more important than family, but Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin was just that: Family. So was Belle. And they needed help more than anyone in town at the moment.

And at the moment, there was really only one way to help...

Tinkerbelle got out the dreamcatcher again. She looked hesitantly at Gold before taking a deep breath.

"I'm going to be honest with you: You're not a nice man. You've done awful things, you were the terror of the town not so long ago as a matter of fact. However, I've seen worse. Much worse. You might not like what you see, but I've noticed you always have a reason for doing it that isn't so crappy."

"Uh..." Gold blinked. "And that's supposed to be...reassuring?"

"More like honest, but whatever. Just let your mind go blank, or try to think about what you saw last time. That might trigger the memories that came afterwards."

Tinkerbelle held up the dreamcatcher, and the webbing began to swirl with golden light. An image slowly appeared of a dark shop cluttered with stuff, like the pawnshop on steroids. Gold, long-haired and in his full suit, appeared in the middle of the room. He looked around slowly, peering into the cases and along the shelves...

_A small man with a large head and a little pointy beard, dressed in a white turban and blue robes, popped over one of the cases._

_"Hello!" he grinned widely, a bright light flaring overhead, illuminating the shop to be even more cluttered than it looked in the dark. "Welcome, welcome! Welcome to the Bizarre Bazaar! Everything you see before you has a story to tell, a new history waiting to unfold, and is the finest merchandise this side of Agrabah money can buy! Come, come, look around, see what I have for sale. Aha! Perhaps I can interest you in this! Dead Sea Tupperware, ah? Yes, it's very nice. Keeps food fresh for days, eh?"_

_It was a plain square dish with a plastic lid. (But then...in the Enchanted Forest that was probably amazing.)_

_The merchant seemed to glean from Gold's flat expression he was not amazed, however. He tossed the Tupperware aside and jumped back behind the counter, disappearing save for the top of his turban for a moment._

_"No, no, no, how silly of me. I can see you are only interested in something exceptionally rare..." the merchant rose up above the counter again, hopping up on a stool and thrusting out a golden object. "What about, this! Do not be fooled by this lamp's ordinary appearance. Like so many things, it is not what's on the outside, but on the inside-"_

_"Please," Gold cut in shortly. "I've not interest in genie lamps today. I'm looking for the Unbreaking Heart."_

_Seemingly a bit surprised his speech had been cut short, the merchant tucked the lamp under the counter. "Ah. Well, the lamp is just a nice way to hook tourists, anyway. The Unbreaking Heart, you say? Hmm..." he glanced around. "I know I left it **somewhere**...maybe on the left side of the shop...? Ah, I'll get to that in a moment. What have you to trade for it?"_

_"Trade?"_

_"Yes. Did you not read the sign on the door? The Bizarre Bazaar does not accept cash, credit, coin, children or animals. I only deal in the bizarre and valuable, items with meaning-"_

_"Like a plastic tub and lid?"_

_The merchant shrugged. "Not all trades are equal. But! What do you have to offer for such a rare and powerful artifact?"_

_Gold snorted. "I make my living in deals. Tell me what it is you want, and we'll come to an agreement."_

_"Ah...a man of no uncertain terms! Very well!" The merchant twirled his pointy beard thoughtfully. "Hmm...there is a magic lyre in the musician's shop down the street. I've been trying to barter for it for months. We're up to three banjos, a panpipe, and two slide whistles. I'm missing the slide whistle. Bring me back Orpheus' Lyre, and I-"_

_"Do you want the lyre for access to the Underworld, or simply as another...draw, for tourists?"_

_"Uh...well, everyone's seeking to raise the dead. Magically impossible, of course, but business is business." The merchant paused. "Why?"_

_Gold flicked his wrist, and in a swirl of red smoke, a plain knife appeared in one hand and a clear bottle in another. He set them on the counter in front of the merchant, and proceeded to slice the palm of his hand, squeezing drops of dark blood into the bottle until it just covered the bottom._

_"There. I've returned from Hell. Alive." Gold smirked, pressing the stopper into the opening and pushing it towards the merchant. "That will open any portal to the Underworld. Of course how you get back and what state it's in after I last left it is really rather up in the air."_

_The merchant stared at the magically healed cut on his palm, and the bottle of blood in front of him._

_"Wh-who...who **are** you?"_

_"I'm the Dark One. Now do we have a deal, dearie?"_

_The merchant scuttled off quickly, and after some crashes and thuds, he returned quickly with a tiny wooden box no bigger than the palm of a hand. He opened it, revealing a velvet lined interior and a tiny, silver heart inside with a silvery rose on the front._

_"The Unbeating Heart," he said, placing it on the counter for Gold to inspect. "Forged in the fires of a star-crossed romance from another land. It's said to be a sign of a love that can never be, but is strong nonetheless. I got it from a nasty little goblin, smelled wretched, had to deodorize the shop once he left."_

_"Mm...I'll take it."_

_"Excellent!" The merchant grinned, snatching up the bottle of blood. "And I shall take this! Do remember the Bizarre Bazaar if you're ever in the Land of Untold Stories again and seeking a rare item, O Dark One."_

_Gold tucked the small box into his pocket. "I doubt I shall have to, but thank you."_

_He withdrew Merlin's Wand and a new door opened up-_

The knocking at the door make Tink and Gold loose concentration, and the rest of the image blinked out. Tink shooed them out the living room to her bedroom, all three of them, so she could answer the door without looking suspicious. As Henry shut the door behind him, Astrid, and Gold, he realized two things: One, his grandfather got the Unbeating Heart and had theoretically returned to Morpheus. The other was that Gold had Merlin's Wand again, so he could, hypothetically, travel anywhere between the realms...so why hadn't he come back to Storybrooke right away with Belle?

* * *

No matter how many times Killian reminded her that Henry was a smart boy, that he grew up in Storybrooke and knew it inside and out, that he wasn't alone: Emma was still worried.

Hyde was on the loose, and the Blue Fairy was furious the Dark One slipped away into the ether with a junior fairy and two children. Emma worried what would happen to her son if the Blue Fairy got her hands on him first. That was assuming Gold wasn't playing possum...

You couldn't tell with that slippery bastard.

The nun's sedan was found behind Gold's shop, abandoned without a clue to be found. Blue tried getting into the shop herself, but was sharply repelled. Apparently Gold had it firmly warded against her, which infuriated the fairy to no end. Regina had more luck but admitted there was so much stuff in Gold's shop she wouldn't know what was missing or not, especially in the back room where Gold kept all his most valuable/dangerous goodies.

She and Emma decided to keep searching for Henry. There had to be somewhere in Storybrooke they were overlooking, but for the life of her, Emma couldn't figure out what...except...

Maybe Gold's house?

It seemed a bit obvious, but maybe that was the clever part of it. Emma, Killian, and Regina headed there as soon as the Blue Fairy stormed off to her convent again, muttering something about taking precautionary measures due to the circumstances. Judging from what she saw, Emma wouldn't say Gold was much of a threat anymore. He looked like he'd have a hard time tearing his way out of a paper bag, really. Once they found Henry, she'd have to reassure him that Gold wasn't in any trouble and he didn't need to hide him again...though probably after that young man got the ear-ringing of a life time.

Emma knocked on the door, being the closest once they were on the porch. There was no answer, not even when she knocked again.

Well...if they were hiding, they wouldn't answer, of course.

"Should we try around back?" Regina asked.

"Stand aside, love," Killian said, pulling Emma back. "Let me try." He brought his hook down twice on the door knob, and the brassy handle fell off on the third blow, the inner mechanisms popping free and the door cracking open ever-so-slightly.

Regina scoffed. "Subtle. Why not just let me burn the door down with a fireball next time?"

Killian flashed her his charming-pirate grin. "Ladies first, Your Majesty-"

"Such a gentleman..." a male voice chuckled, the door swinging wide open. "Not a very clever one, though."

Emma didn't get a very good look at the man before Killian grabbed her and shoved her behind him. He was tall, broad, had brown hair and a scarred face, wore an old-fashioned suit...and really sounded like he was doing a Tom Hardy-style Bane impersonation, if her ears were to be believed. Whoever he was...he definitely didn't belong here.

"I'm going out on a limb and saying Henry isn't here," Regina said slowly, sizing up the stranger squatting in Gold's house. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"He's Hyde," Killian scowled, backing Emma down the steps. "He's the monster Jekyll split himself from-"

"A pleasure to see you again as well," she saw Mr. Hyde give a sarcastic little bow. "I must confess, Captain, I didn't realize I had such famous company last time we met. Captain Hook, Killian Jones, the Neverland Pirate. It would have made things much easier, but then, you didn't exactly sail into port so there's no great loss on my part. And that must be your dear Miss Swan behind you... _and_...The Evil Queen, I presume?"

"Not anymore," Regina frowned. "What the hell do you want?"

Hyde smiled. "Now is not the time. I suggest, however, that you never darken my doorstep again unless you wish to face some very grave consequences."

"This isn't your house-"

Hyde plucked something from inside his coat, and jangled a pair of keys in the air. House keys. Modern house keys...that could only have come from the owner. _Oh shit_.

"I'm the new owner, you might say. This isn't the only key Rumpelstiltskin handed over in town, either. Enjoy your last days in control, Savior, Your Majesty. Because your time is drawing to a close in this charming little town, and the new masters have arrived."

Regina raised her hand in a way Emma learned early on meant she was going to start throwing fire at people. "Regina, wait! Don't-"

Nothing happened.

Hyde arched a thick brow at Regina's odd pose, and studied the confused look on her face as she studied her hands. "I'm sorry, am I supposed to be in pain now?"

Emma panicked and shut her eyes. There was a cold, shivery feeling and a swirl of air around her, and suddenly she, Killian, and Regina were in her parents' loft apartment alone with a vague feeling of vertigo to go with their unease. Regina went to move and tripped into the table, rubbing her hip absently as she took in their new surroundings.

"What the hell just happened? Emma?"

"Sorry, sorry, I...that was a surprise."

"The teleporting or that the Crocodile betrayed us to My. Hyde?" Killian scowled. "I knew that bastard was up to no good. He probably left Belle behind and came to take over with-"

"Oh shut your porthole, Captain One-Hand," Regina snapped. "You're always claiming Gold's your nemesis? Why don't you think like him for a minute; It's too easy. Gold doesn't work with the obvious, he's a sneaky, patient, snake in the grass when he has a new scheme up his sleeve. He wouldn't have blindly walked into the Blue Fairy's lair for anything. For once, he's got nothing to do with this. Hyde's on his own."

"But-"

"She's...right," Emma agreed slowly. It felt like she'd taken a false step in the dark, a lurching, unsteady feeling flipping her stomach. "She's right. Gold might have given Hyde a way in to Storybrooke, but that's it. He doesn't do team-ups."

"Exactly." Regina nodded. "So this means that we have to find Gold and figure out just what all he told Bane, and to do that, we have to find Henry."

She paused a moment, eyeing Emma up and down. "I might have an idea, but I'll need your help."

"Right, of course. Killian? Go find my dad and tell him we've found where Hyde's base."

Killian frowned, grabbing her wrist. "I'm not leaving you, Swan, didn't you hear Hyde?"

"Killian, I'll be fine. I've got Regina with me."

He didn't look very pleased about that, but relented with another scowl. "Just...be safe, love. We've still got that happy ending to reach, remember?"

Emma smiled. "Of course."

Regina rolled her eyes, opening the door. She muttered something about _'making eyes again'_   and gestured impatiently out the door. She was really not a patient person, but, at least that meant she was results-oriented. And the most important result right now was finding Henry before something worse happened to him, so Emma gave Killian a quick kiss and followed after Regina as she swept out the apartment.

* * *

The door opened to reveal Leroy... _and_ his brothers. All squabbling.

Good lord dwarves were noisy.

Tink clapped her hands and said loudly, "Gentleman! What is it I can help you with today?"

Doc wiggled his way past Leroy to stand at the front. "Is it true? The Dark One has returned?"

"What part of 'shut up' didn't you understand?" Leroy scowled, but Doc's question seemed to open the floodgates for the others.

"Is he planning something?"

"Is Astrid in there too? Why's she working with Gold, did she make a deal?"

"Are we in danger?"

"Why's the Blue Fairy got her wings in a twist about it?"

"Are we interrupting your breakfast?"

Tink glanced over her shoulder at Bashful's question. Sitting on her coffee table were four empty plates, and the salt and pepper shakers Astrid left on the table...and Henry's shoes on the floor...shit. So much for secrecy. She let the dwarves tumble into her apartment, then, moving to the back. "You can come out now! And get your damned shoes, Henry!"

In three minutes, the dwarves told the story of this morning's encounter with Blue in the diner. Rheul Gorm, in all her hypocritical benevolence, was on the warpath. Whether it was because the Dark One was no longer Dark with a capital D, or simply because she'd been slighted in her own house, it was obvious Blue wasn't going to let this go quietly. That was bad news anyway you sliced it.

"I don't suppose anyone has any good news?" Tink asked rhetorically, flopping down in her ugly armchair. It was orange or yellowish-green, depending on how you looked at it, but it had been cheap and wasn't uncomfortable at all.

Astrid reached into the pile of magical books and thumbed through a rather useless one on transfiguration. It was more about changes in the body, curses and spells and stuff like that, nothing connected to the mind, except a little excerpt about how to teel a frog prince apart from a lively frog.

"Actually...I did find a spell that turns people into flowers..."

"Are you suggesting we turn Blue into a daffodil?" Tink snorted...then thought about. "Well if you think that would help-"

"No! No, I mean, if you cast the spell in reverse," Astrid made a little switching sign, swirling her finger in the air. "Then that should turn Dopey back into a person again. Theoretically. I mean you'd have to get him back across the town line, still, but, y'know, it's an idea."

"Oh. Well, that's even better."

Leroy looked impressed. Well, personally Tink thought to that one, Astrid could do no wrong, but she didn't say that aloud. "What do you need to try it?" he asked.

Astrid turned white. "What? No, no I can't do it, I'll mess it up. I'm terrible at casting spells, last time I tried it I turned another fairy into a toad, and I was trying to change a mouse into a horse!"

"You can do it," Leroy insisted. "This time you won't have Blue watching over your shoulder waiting for you to make a mistake. All you have to do is try, that's already more than anyone else has done for Dopey."

"It's true," Happy agreed sunnily. "We had to break into Emma's house to get my axe back while they were in the Underworld..." his smile turned nervous as he glanced at Henry. "Pretend I didn't say that."

With a yawn, Sleepy sat down at the coffee table. He looked like he was going to settle in for a nap while no one was looking, but then his gaze drifted towards the cloth-covered mirror sitting on the end table. Before Tink could get out the word "don't" he'd peeked under the hand towel they'd covered the project with and asked, "What's this?"

Henry slid over and picked up the mirror, the last few crystals sitting on the mirror's surface as he held it like a plate. "It's something we're trying to fix. The crystal parts broke off-"

"And you're trying to fix it with glue?" he blinked owlishly. "Well that won't work, well, not really. The crystals are fragmented."

"It's Krazy Glue..." Henry muttered.

"No, he's right," Bashful said, shaking his head. "If those were magic crystals-"

"And if Gold had them in his shop, they _definitely_ were." Leroy added.

"-then they won't project energy right."

Gold's mouth twisted. "So this was a waste of time, you mean?"

The five other dwarves all looked at Gold a little skittishly. Tink supposed he looked more "Mr. Gold" in that dark shirt and trousers, even if he was missing a tie and a jacket and all. They probably thought he'd start turning people into slugs if they answered "yes", which wasn't true of course, but-Oh, wait a minute.

"Not if..." Tink thought a moment. "Not if we had a little fairy dust...boys?"


	12. XII. Trees and Trespassers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we all just agree that Hook-centrics suck? 06x12 wasn't even supposed to be about him, and yet, it was all about him. So he's not even mentioned in this chapter. Ha!
> 
> And Emma...god...poor Emma...you don't canoe, you don't giggle about boat safety. *pets* Here, let's get you doing something important, huh? *nudges into action*

Regina wondered why she hadn't thought of this before. She dragged Emma down to the Storybrooke Tourist Center, which had a tiny museum of sorts for Storybrooke's "history" as a fishing village and mining town that wasn't real, and lots of tacky ads and brochures to hook the tourists that never came to town, but the Camelot people had still found very interesting.

The bulletin board outside still displayed current town events and information, but inside there were also paper maps of Storybrooke.

"We just need a drop of your blood, and we can find Henry instantly."

"Oh. That's brilliant...do you have like a pin or something?"

Regina flicked her wrist to conjure a needle...but nothing happened. She repeated the action, trying to make a needle appear, but to no avail. What the hell? Earlier she'd failed to summon a fireball to her hand to blast Hyde's smug face with...but she just didn't manage what was easily her signature trick. Hmm.

Emma frowned, apparently picking up that something wasn't right. "What's up with you today?"

"I guess...I guess I'm distracted. Robin was up half the night and I'm worried about Henry and-I'll just try again."

Nothing.

What the hell?

Emma finally summoned up a small Swiss Army knife with a wave of her hand. She shrugged when Regina gave her a look, and carefully nicked the pad of her thumb. Guessing that she wouldn't be able to do _this_ either, Regina instructed, "Imagine going to Henry, your shared blood calling to each other. Like a locator spell."

"Right, right..." Emma muttered, a drop of blood falling onto the paper.

It slowly oozed across the map until it puddled in an area near the waterfront. If Regina's memory served her, that was where a few apartment buildings were located. Not too rough ones, mostly one and two bedroom apartments. But she didn't know who would be living down there that Henry would go to, unless he was squatting somewhere...what did it matter? Regina shook herself. The only thing that mattered was that she and Emma tracked Henry down, and made sure he was okay. And then give him an earful for making them worry about him. And probably apologize for the whole Blue Fairy snafu.

"That's on the waterfront, right?" Emma asked. "Come on, I'm parked back by Gold's shop, it'll be faster to drive."

Right.

Except that by the time they had climbed into Emma's car, the blood on the map started moving. It first headed into town, but before Emma was close enough to catch up, it started rolling out of town altogether.

Where on Earth was Henry headed?

* * *

After a very technical argument about magic crystals Astrid didn't wholly understand, but believed the point was all the crystals had to be glued together before the fairy dust should be applied, she and Henry went with five of the dwarves while Sleepy stayed behind in the apartment with Tink and Mr. Gold. Presumably to help, but he'd also nodded off on the sofa.

Henry had to come because he was the only not-Emma/Regina person they knew of in town that could cross the town line without a magical key. He'd been reluctant to leave Gold, which Astrid could understand from his perspective, but Gold had encouraged him to go.

"It's not like I'll be going anywhere, go on."

Mr. Gold looked nicer when he wasn't all...sour-faced and dour, all the time. Maybe that was the person Belle saw in him. Who knew?

Happy had the wheel and Astrid found herself wrapped up in a borrowed coat from Tinkerbelle, (the bomber jacket wasn't really her style, but the brown leather and fleecy collar were better than the green or black coats that were her other choices,) sitting by Leroy, with Henry on her other side pretending not to notice, his nose stuck in the textbook studying the spell they were trying.

When the curse first broke, and Emma and Snow had been sent off to the old world, David had come up to the convent to look around and see how things were going. He'd brought Henry with him, and the boy had recognized her almost immediately from his storybook. Apparently her and Dreamy/Grumpy's tale was in there, which Astrid wouldn't have ever believed. Young Henry had immediately exclaimed that she and Leroy were supposed to be together, the first person Astrid had ever met who believed that.

So he wasn't fooling her, she could see him smiling. Or smirking. No, that was definitely a smirk.

For her part, Astrid was too nervous about potentially screwing up this spell to be nervous about what she was supposed to say to Leroy right now. She wasn't kidding when she said she was terrible at casting spells. She was good at summoning simple objects she'd seen before into existence, or summoning things from a distance. She could grow and shrink, but she couldn't cast a glamor spell. She couldn't transfigure anything successfully, and her spell casting always went awry to the point where the wand specialist fairy despaired of her ever starting wand-training.

That was truly disheartening...so...maybe Leroy had a point about her doing better if Blue wasn't looking over her shoulder...maybe.

Hopefully.

They made two stops: One at the hardware store for some rope, and one at the mines for a bit of fairy dust. They kept the fairy dust in plastic tubs in a shed now, instead of burlap sacks, so putting some in a sandwich baggie was easy. Some of it would be used on Dopey, some of it would be used on the crystals mounted to the mirror. That was the plan at least.

Henry hesitantly stepped over the town line. He didn't sprout branches, roots, or leaves, so that was a good sign. Still, Henry was quick to loop the rope around the middle of the trunk where Dopey's waist ought to be, and hurry back without lingering. Astrid measured out some fairy dust into the palm of her hand, trying to guess the distance from here to the tree. Okay...she could do this.

Probably...

* * *

Gold thought he'd heard someone call the dwarf/man who'd been left behind "Sleepy" and...well, he was fast asleep on the sofa, so that was apt.

The last crystals had been glued down and Tinkerbelle had gone through the books again with a dissatisfied look on her face. The dwarves had talked about him like some sort of imposing figure you didn't speak of too loudly for fear of drawing attention. He didn't...feel imposing. He felt helpless, and confused. Tink picked up the dreamcatcher again, sighing.

"Wanna give this another try?" she asked. "I have a feeling we're about to get to the part where things turn ugly, you don't have to."

Gold pursed his lips. Well...he didn't have to. But...what other choices did he have, really? Sit and wait, or sit and learn? That wasn't much of a choice at all, really.

"Let's try again."

Tink nodded, and had him sit in the armchair while she sat on the coffee table in front of him. He thought of the last place they'd left off, in that cluttered shop with a door...to somewhere...and the dreamcatcher began to swirl...

 _Morpheus appeared a beat after he walked through the door to the woman's side_. (Belle, her name was Belle.) _The god eyed the small box in his hand and smiled. "Ah, you've found it! You were very quick, that must've been just under twelve hours away!"_

_"I was gone for half an hour at most," Gold frowned suspiciously._

_"Oh, **you** were, maybe, but in the Land of Untold Stories...time passes differently because nothing comes to **pass** at all," Morpheus said, as if speaking to a child. "Not to mention this is my realm, where people only come when they're dreaming. It's quite a fluid situation, but I told you to be quick about it didn't I?"_

_Gold cast his eyes over Belle critically. Nothing had changed from how he'd left her on the plush couch. Her hair was spread out in a chestnut halo, her dark lashes fanning her cheeks, face smooth and peaceful. Sleeping like the dead. He'd had quiet enough of that, to be honest. Time to break the damned curse and leave this irritating dream-demon behind._

_"Here's your heart. Now wake my wife."_

_"Ah, in a moment-"_

_"You will wake her now, we have a deal."_

_"Oh, but, I think you'll be interested in the story behind this little artifact," Morpheus smiled, opening the box to peer at the small heart inside. "And I won't be waking your wife until the tale is told, so you might as well make yourself comfortable."_

_Gold rolled his eyes, sitting on the arm of the couch near Belle's head as the story began._

_"You might be familiar with it in your foster homeland, but the truth of the matter was this: There was once a pair of noble twins, considered such a miracle to their long-childless parents they were blessed with a fairy godmother. One year, on their fifth birthday, she granted them enchanted toys on a whim. For the prince, a small army of tin soldiers to command. For the princess, a lovely little castle with a charming ballerina looking out one of the windows. As the ballerina would dance inside the house, the tin soldiers could march drills and follow orders. Except for one soldier who's leg had been broken off. The prince was disappointed with that soldier, and left him aside.One day this tin soldier looked across the way, and who else should he see except for the charming ballerina dancing around her pretty castle?_

_"He was quite taken by how well the ballerina danced upon one leg, spinning about and leaping, and he fancied that someday she would look over and see him keeping guard on his one good leg and be just as impressed. However, the Mouse King-"_

_"I believe you're mixing up your fairytales now," Gold interrupted with a rude snort._

_Morpheus just smiled._

_"Oh no, I'm quite sure it was the Mouse King. He was taken by the young lady too, and decided that she would be his bride and jealously guarded the castle. He told the tin soldier to stop staring at the ballerina, but the soldier wouldn't comply. So one day, the Mouse King pushed him out a window into the garden below. The groundskeeper took him home to his boys, who built the soldier a paper boat to sail on, and so he went off down the stream further and further from his love, but remaining just as steadfast. He stood at attention without fear, not even when his boat sank and a great fish came along and swallowed him up. Still the soldier persevered, thinking of the charming ballerina. And then one day, the fish was cut open in the kitchens of the noble family's home, and the cook was so surprised to find the soldier inside the fish she was preparing for supper that she rushed all the way up to the nursery where the young prince and princess were delighted to find him again...and the soldier fancied that the ballerina was pleased to see him too._

_"For a time the prince included the one-legged tin soldier in his army again, but eventually was displeased by how the soldier couldn't stand as steadily as his two-legged men and placed him on the mantle to watch over the room. And from here, it was the work of moments for the Mouse King to push him off the mantle and into the merrily blazing fire. No one knows if the tin soldier stood bravely as he melted and died, or if he screamed for help because no one was there to see it. All they knew for a fact was that the doors to the ballerina's castle flew open, and she was blown out and into the fire with him. She made of delicate, fine things that burned quickly, save a little tinsel rose. Contrary to popular belief, they didn't melt into a heart together. Someone pieced together what happened after the fact, when the maid was cleaning the fireplace, and fashioned the soldier's melted remains into a heart and soldered the rose to the front. The princess, being a romantic sort of child, declared it a symbol of great love and it was kept in the family for years...until it was lost, as most relics are."_

_Gold hummed. "A fascinating story to be sure. But why do you want it?"_

_"Because it does have power," Morpheus shrugged. "As a link to a cautionary tale: The soldier's love was unrequited. In fact, he might not even care for the ballerina at all, he just enjoyed gazing upon her beauty from a distance, they didn't know one another. The soldier was put through hell because he dared look above his station, and was punished for it until he burned. And his would-be love burned with him, and they are bound in the annals of history as a tragic love story though they hardly even loved each other...doesn't that sound familiar at all to you?"_

_Gold's eyes narrowed venomously. "Will you lift the curse, or won't you?"_

_Morpheus laughed, like he'd just watched a dog do a funny trick. "You are persistent. Foolish, but persistent. How often have you been told to leave your charming ballerina alone, and how often has it hurt the both of you when you refused?"_

_"There's a difference there, dearie. Belle hasn't sat passively and watched me suffer. She has fought, fought harder than I deserve, to keep us together. And it's my turn to fight for her and our child now. So either break the bloody curse, or I **will** find another way, because I won't let her suffer a moment longer than I have to."_

_The tall god tilted his head to the side, studying him closely. His smile softened from amused to something more genuine._

_"You mean it, don't you?" he shook his head. "Well, well. I never thought I'd see the day a Dark One chose love over saftey. Very well-" he clicked his fingers. "It is done."_

_Belle bolted upright on the sofa gasping, blue eyes wide and mouth gaping. She almost toppled off the sofa before Gold steadied her by her shoulders, his touch light though lingering, and he removed his hands entirely when she whipped her head around towards him._

_"Rumple?"_

_"Yes, it's me, you're okay-"_

_"Where are we? Where's my father?"_

_"He...he's not here-"_

_"Where are we?" Belle looked around in that frantic way someone waking up in a strange place had. "A-are we out of the Underworld?"_

_Morpheus leaned over and tapped Belle's forehead. She startled at his touch, but he just smiled._

_"Disorientation. Perfectly normal, Mrs. Gold."_

_"Who are you?!" she squeaked, scooting back until she was almost in Gold's arms again._

_He bowed deeply. "Morpheus. God of Dreams. Now that you're awake, my work is done here. I wish you both the best of luck. You're going to need it."_

_And he vanished in a cloud of glittering black smoke, like stardust, leaving one confused wife and one anxious husband behind on a couch in an empty temple..._

That was when things went awry, and not just the images that Gold was seeing reflected on the dreamcatcher's webbing.

The clear picture began to grow fuzzy and warped, the sound coming too slow or too fast or too fuzzy to understand at all. The golden glow of the memories became warped with white and black streaks and Tink shook the dreamcatcher like that would fix it, going so far as to slap it against her palm.

In the image, Gold could make out Belle talking to his past self. She looked increasingly less pleased with whatever it was he had to say, and he was saying it with an expression that looked like he was waiting on a hanging. He saw Belle get to her feet with himself, then the images started coming in spurts. The wand opened another door. The door closed. They were on a crowded street. The wand again. A child. A different street. The cluttered shop. A man with a dark beard. Darkness. So much darkness. So much that was all the dreamcatcher was showing anymore, an inky blue-black spiral that only went away when Tink cut off the flow of magic.

She inspected the dreamcatcher from all angles, tugging on the feathers and prodding the webbing before giving him a bewildered look. "What the hell happened? Did you stop concentrating or-"

"No! I don't think so. I mean I was pretty invested in what was going on, I wouldn't stop thinking about it _there_."

"Then...then is this thing faulty? Did we burn it out maybe?" she asked, tapping it against her palm again and giving it another once over. "This doesn't make any sense. If it traced memories so far, it ought to keep going. Uh...okay. Let's try something. Imagine Henry's face. Imagine the first time you saw him."

Gold closed his eyes. He imagined his sudden appearance in the shop, with Henry and his mothers and that hook-handed scoundrel. Opening his eyes, the dreamcatcher was playing that memory clearly, only the memories were swirling silver instead of golden light before.

Tink frowned. "Uh...alright...think of any memory that comes to mind, then."

He obeyed again. The dreamcatcher showed how he woke up this morning, nearly cracking heads with Astrid. Still silver. Tink pet the dreamcatcher fall in her lap, resting her chin in her palm pensively.

"Okay...well that might explain why you can't remember anything. There's some...thing, blotting out your old memories. That's probably why these are a different color, they're being...filtered, you might say. Though that doesn't explain why you can remember your whole side quest for Morpheus. Hmm. Alright, we'll try one last thing. I'm going to recall something from your past that I was there for-"

"Wait, why the hell weren't we trying that before?"

"Because I didn't think it would work, and I still don't think it will. Now shush."

Gold rolled his eyes, but obediently shushed as Tink held up the dreamcatcher again and focused on the center. There was a flicker of gold light, but it snuffed out quickly. Twice. Then the webbing swirled to live to show a dark...ship...with lots of people on it. Mostly young boys, dressed in ragged clothes and rough cloaks, and a few adults that all looked familiar. Ah. Henry's mothers, the pirate, a man and woman that looked similar to Emma and Henry, perhaps they were relatives.

Tink was there in green, ragged clothes not unlike most of the boys were wearing, and Gold was there too...wearing some outfit that looked to be made entirely out of leather and crocodile skins. He looked _younger_ here, even with the streaks of gray at his temples. Near him was a man in a blue shirt, with dark hair and a goatee, and dark brown eyes-

"Okay," Tink cut the memory off. "So I can't access your memories."

"But you just-"

"That was a memory of mine. Getting off of Neverland-"

"Neverland?" Gold frowned. "That sounds ominous, what's that?"

Tink shook her head with a frustrated huff. " _Ominous_. Don't worry about that right now. Um, so we'll just tap Henry for some of your more recent stuff I guess, but I-I really don't know what to tell you. If the Morpheus memories are there, then you should have full access to everything else. I...I have no idea, this is really above me. This is the kind of stuff the Charmings would usually pester you about."

"Me? Why me?"

Tink hesitated. "I...I really can't say. I sort of took a vacation from heroism for the past few months. It's been nice, quiet. I was determined not to get dragged into any other madness so you'll have to ask someone else. Ideally Henry. Speaking of Henry," she got up, and it felt like she was changing the subject. "We're going to have to do something about his situation. We ought to keep you away from Blue, but Henry's got a big family. They'll start getting worried about him sooner or later and start looking for him."

She had changed the subject, but it was still a good point.

And Rumpelstiltskin didn't fancy running afoul of the lad's mothers so soon after evading their... _actions_...at the convent.

* * *

The closer they got to the town line, the more nervously Astrid started wringing her hands.

Magic wasn't easy, and it always came with a price. Logically Henry knew that. Fairy dust was a bit different since it was partially manmade, he figured. The dwarves had to find, mine, and grind the crystals into the finished product. It was _work_ , not just a snap of the fingers and poof. All Astrid had to do was imbue the fairy dust they had with the intent to transfigure Dopey back to himself, theoretically, and then they'd yank him over the townline.

It took some figuring on how best to sprinkle the dust on Dopey since he wasn't exactly far from the bright orange line on the ground, but he wasn't very close either. About six steps outside the town line. Enough that Henry could dart out and loop the rope around him without feeling more than a weird itchy sensation on his skin like ants were skittering over him. No leaves, no roots, no problem. Phew.

The rope was secure, and Astrid was triple-checking the spellbook one last time. She didn't look very confident in herself, and Henry wasn't too surprised. The older he got, the more he'd noticed the Blue Fairy wasn't very...nurturing. The other fairies were pretty polite, but distant, and few had personalities as distinct as Astrid and Tink's.

Maybe that was the way Blue liked it, everyone orderly and well-behaved.

 _Yikes_.

Henry helped the other dwarves secure the rope into a nice line they could pull on. Bashful had grabbed some gloves from somewhere and encouraged them to wear them. Saftey first, he insisted. Happy followed this up by saying that if they couldn't pull him across by hand, they'd tie a rope to the trailer hitch on the van and try that. That seemed more like...saftey second, but still. They were dwarves. Miners. They were sure to have some kind of saftey precautions. Right?

What Henry and the rest of the dwarves were pretending not to do while keeping busy was look at Astrid or Leroy. But since you only needed so many people to tie some ropes, there was always somebody peeking at their brother and the fairy standing sort of close together and talking just quiet enough that you couldn't hear them clearly.

"What if I can't?" Astrid whisper-stressed loud enough to catch their ears.

"Then we'll figure something out, but I know you can do it," Leroy insisted, quieter. Sneezy moved in front of Henry then so he couldn't see but he thought they were holding hands now. "Forget everything Blue's ever said about you, okay? This is just you. All you've got to do is try, that's all we need. I know you'll try your best, that's what you do."

"I...I can do that, yeah...yeah. Okay. I can try it."

Leroy turned around then, ( _not_ holding Astrid's hand,) and scowled at his gawking brothers. "What the hell are you guys staring at? You got everything ready or not?"

"All set." Doc nodded, tossing Leroy a pair of gloves. "We're ready when you are Astrid."

Astrid swallowed, digging the baggie of fairy dust out and taking a large pinch. The wind was blowing in their favor, the van parked aside so it wouldn't block the flow. Theoretically, she just had to let it loose with a little toss when it was blowing strongly, and the magic ought to carry over the town line just far enough to de-tree Dopey.

Theoretically...

A good, strong gust blew through and Henry grabbed onto the rope with the dwarves, digging his heels into the pavement. The dust in Astrid's hands glowed a faint shade of pink and the breeze scattered it over the fluorescent line right into Dopey's trunk. The tree shuddered and shrank, leaves and branches becoming fingers and hands, roots withdrawing from the ground to form feet. Everyone gave a hard yank and Dopey shot over the line before the last of the bark melted into human flesh again, planting right on his face.

_Ouch..._

* * *

Dopey sat up, rubbing his face. His knees stung from his fall on the pavement, he could feel he'd lost his hat. He wasn't sure what happened, but the last thing he remembered was trying to cross the town line to get away from Emma's Dark Swan thing she had going on...

A hand smaller than any of his brothers could have landed on his shoulder and a lady's voice babbled, "Oh, oh are you alright? Say s-Uh, I mean, can you hear me? Do you have all your fingers, toes?"

For a moment, Dopey had trouble identifying the woman helping him to his feet while his brothers dashed over and surrounded them. Astrid was wearing jeans and a bomber jacket instead of the frumpy nun outfit, and she had a spellbook tucked under arm. Sleepy was missing from the throng of his brothers all wanting to reach out and touch and shake and slap him on the back, (brothers...) but Henry Mills was there grinning like something great had just happened.

Oh.

Oh he'd been turned into a tree, hadn't he?

Oh!

Dopey spun around, looking at the ground where he'd been standing-Er, planted? His purple stocking hat was sitting just on the wrong side of the bright orange line, but really, he'd just buy another one. It was just a hat. Then, recalling something Astrid said earlier, Dopey checked his hands and wiggled his toes in his boots.

All his fingers were there, but he wasn't sure about his toes...he gave Astrid a thumbs up anyway, and she grinned back.

"I told ya you could do it!" he heard Leroy practically cheer, and Astrid giggled, flinging her arms around his neck.

Huh. Dopey wondered if they'd started dating while he was a tree. It was about time, you could only make fun of your brother's crush for so long before it started becoming sad. He and Bashful had been trying to come up with an idea to lock them in the supply shed at the mines or something--

A car horn blared through the silent forest around them and they all turned back towards the road leading out of Storybrooke.

A dark red compact was barrelling down the road without hesitating, headed straight for them. It was such a bizarre sight, nobody ever drove towards Storybrooke, it was practically on the side road of a side road, and for a moment they all stood and gawked.

"Move!" Sneezy shrieked.

Everyone scattered like before the car did that for them like a gory bowling pins. The car plowed over the town line and came to a stop further down the road, the door popping open. A woman stepped out and flicked her wrist, her dark, rhinestone studded gown turning fitted snugly, red as blood with a sheer black lace V running down the front. She was dressed in high Evil Queen chic in Dopey's opinion, with her dark hair piled up intricately and dark khol around her eyes...

No, wait...not _like_ the Evil Queen. It _was_ the Evil Queen.

Had Regina contracted the Dark One now, Dopey wondered?

"What the hell Henry?" Leroy hissed as they all drifted back together, saftey and numbers and such.

"I...have no idea..." Henry shook his head, looking like someone slapped him between the eyes. "That's not possible. My mom got rid of her in New York-"

"Obviously not!"

"Hello boys and girl," Regina grinned. "Your Queen has arrived."

Further up the road, leading from town, Emma's yellow bug rounded the corner. Dopey saw it slam to a stop and a blonde, red-jacketed Emma jumped out of the driver's seat as Regina sprang out of the passenger side in her usual attire. Wait. If Regina was here...Dopey knew Zelena was her half sister, but if Regina had an evil twin floating around that would just be too much. Maybe it was better being a tree after all.

"Moms! It's-"

"We see her kid," Emma cut him off, staring at evil!Regina with wide eyes Dopey could see from here. "We see her..."

"Well, well, the Savior. And my other half! How are you on this fine, fine day in my town?"

"It's not your town anymore you cheap knockoff," Regina snapped back. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Evil!Regina threw her head back and laughed delightedly. "Now where's the fun in that? That's not how this game is played. You have to wait until I make the first move before you counter it. Keep your eyes open, Regina dear," her smile turned feral. "This game is for keeps."

There was a swirl of purple smoke and Regina's copy vanished, the only trace of her ever being there a battered red car parked in the middle of the road.

Emma and Regina sprinted the distance towards Henry before the smoke had even melted properly. Emma smushed him in a hug Regina joined in on before his foster mother stepped back and cried out, "Where on earth have you been?"

Henry stepped back. "I had to protect Gold from you-"

"Kid, we don't want to hurt Gold-"

"You were going to let the Blue Fairy murder him!"

"Not anymore, Henry, we're sorry about that but-Hyde is in town and he's holed up in Gold's house. He said that Gold gave him the keys to the town, we have to-"

Henry stepped back even more, narrowing his eyes. "No! You're going to leave him alone! All he wants is to get his memories and Belle back, and I'm gonna help him with that before you get him to do anything for you."

"Henry," Regina said calmly. "This isn't about us. The Evil Queen and Hyde are in town, that's just about the worst case scenerio. If we're going to protect the town, Gold is the only person that can help us. So we'll get his memories back, but you have to stop running away from us."

"Do you promise not to hurt him again? Not even Blue?"

"We'll work on her," Emma promised. "I'll get Snow and David to talk to her. Now...are _you_ okay?"

After a pause, Henry nodded, the stiff line of his shoulders softening. "I'm okay."

Dopey looked around, wondering what else he'd missed while he was a tree. While he was looking, he noticed that the Evil Queen had run over his hat. And somehow, that had dragged it over the town line. He picked it up off the ground and tried to shake out the tire marks before tugging it on, dusting off his clothes before rejoining his brothers. He didn't know where Sleepy was, and he didn't know why Henry was protecting Gold from the Blue Fairy.

But, he figured he'd get filled in as they piled into the van with Astrid, and Henry got in the car with his two mothers.

Being Dopey the Dwarf, he was sorta used to not getting the whole picture, after all...


End file.
